397 people died in road accidents during April 11-16

[webfact]

397 people died in road accidents during April 11-16



BANGKOK: -- A total of 397 people died and 3,271 others injured in nationwide road accidents during the past six days of Songkran celebrations as of April 11, according to Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisit.

He disclosed that there were 3,104 road accidents during April 11-16, resulting to 397 deaths and 3,271 injured. On April 16 alone, there were 380 road accidents in which 59 people were killed and 380 others injured. Chiang Mai ranked top with 22 accidents resulting to 22 injured.

During the six-day period, Chiang Mai came top with altogether 158 road accidents and 166 injured while Nakhon Ratchasima topped the list with the highest fatality rate, 18 killed.

Speeding accounted for 31.05 percent of all the accidents followed by drink driving, 28.16 percent. Motorcycles accounted for 80.88 percent of the accidents followed by pickup trucks, 10.08 percent.

69.21 percent of the accidents occurred on highways of the Department of Highways and 36.32 percent on rural roads. 49.54 percent of the dead and the injured were working people.

During the six-day period, officials stopped 654,354 vehicles for checks and of these, 108,717 drivers were charged with traffic violations, including cases of 31,016 not wearing crash helmets and 29,840 cases of driving without licenses.

Mr Arkhom said that the use of personal vehicles had resulted to higher road accidents this year and drink driving was the main cause of most accidents.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/159780


-- Thai PBS 2016-04-18

[selftaopath]

Didn't I read somewhere there was going to be a "massive" police presence on the roads to diminish the typical road carnage? Another example of ....

[uthaithanirules]

Motorcycles again over 80%

How many of those fatalities are from motorcycles

Id love to see yearly figures.

I think the motorcycle thing does skew Thailands road fatality figures

[Mosha]

Motorcycles again over 80%

How many of those fatalities are from motorcycles

Id love to see yearly figures.

I think the motorcycle thing does skew Thailands road fatality figures

80 x 365 gives the total and for motorbikes also multiply by 0.8

Sent from my SMART_4G_Speedy_5inch using Tapatalk

[marko kok prong]

Bear in mind these are only the numbers who died at the scene,one wonders how many you could add,that died later in hospital.

[thesetat2013]

Motorcycles again over 80%

How many of those fatalities are from motorcycles

Id love to see yearly figures.

I think the motorcycle thing does skew Thailands road fatality figures

They focus a lot on motorcycles because it is easier to stop and collect from them. Or impound them. Most of the fatalities are done to motorcyclist by cars. An accident is an accident no matter what kind of vehicle is used. Until the Bib start taking vehicles from every drunk and illegal driver the roads will never be safe.

[meatboy]

Bear in mind these are only the numbers who died at the scene,one wonders how many you could add,that died later in hospital.

yes they who die once they have left the scene dont count.

number's to the 16th so another day to add to.

[cumgranosalum]

these figures show that there is no change from the annual daily norm.......so what are they going on about?

[Sealbash]

Bear in mind these are only the numbers who died at the scene,one wonders how many you could add,that died later in hospital.

yes they who die once they have left the scene dont count.

number's to the 16th so another day to add to.

Where did you receive the criteria for determining statistics?

[realfunster]

Bear in mind these are only the numbers who died at the scene,one wonders how many you could add,that died later in hospital.

yes they who die once they have left the scene dont count.

number's to the 16th so another day to add to.

You're right, Sunday needs to be included, so likely 450+ deaths for the 7 days, which is a significant increase over the last few years' figures . Typically, the range is 320-370.

Feel sorry for those starting the New Year having lost someone and clearly the safety campaign has not had the desired effect.

Edited April 18, 2016 by realfunster

[ronwparker]

I think the motorbikes are responsible for a lot of deaths but sadly the Thai authorities only count those who actually die at the scene of the accident.I always go away from Chiangmai for Songkran!!

[cumgranosalum]

Bear in mind these are only the numbers who died at the scene,one wonders how many you could add,that died later in hospital.

yes they who die once they have left the scene dont count.

number's to the 16th so another day to add to.

Actually that's not necessarily true - we in fact have no idea at all how these stats are compiled and then INTERPRETED. The truth is that WHO stats take into account the different ways stas are compiled around the country, but there stats wont be available for some time.

there is a myth perpetuated on TV about who does and doesn't count as road death but you really need to go to the organisation that is compiling and then publishing the stats......

Edited April 18, 2016 by cumgranosalum

[MaxLee]

Mai pen rai, next year's Songkran Safety campaign is gonna be much better, more appealing and skyrocketing this year's accident records and improved pervy arrests and other shirtless scapegoat strippers to make up for it......

[lvr181]

Bear in mind these are only the numbers who died at the scene,one wonders how many you could add,that died later in hospital.

STOP that farang thinking immediately!

[quandow]

What can you say about a holiday during which the daily death toll is the first thing the news broadcasts and the TV posts are the same as last year's and the year before and the year before (including mine) and the year before and . . .

Edited April 18, 2016 by quandow

[lvr181]

"......108,717 drivers were charged with traffic violations, including cases of 31,016 not wearing crash helmets and 29,840 cases of driving without licenses.

Mr Arkhom said that the use of personal vehicles had resulted to higher road accidents this year and drink driving was the main cause of most accidents."

And no numbers for those charged with drink driving (being as it was the main cause of most accidents, according to Mr Arkhom)? Or were none charged?

Again, lots of talking (campaign) but little real effective action.

[puukao]

We can't stop people from dying....but we can stop ourselves from dying in a certain way.

So during this time, NEVER GET IN A CAR and avoid places where a car has good odds of hitting you.

simple.

now you won't be this statistic. or odds much, much, much lower...

Edited April 18, 2016 by puukao

[cumgranosalum]

What can you say about a holiday during which the daily death toll is the first thing the news broadcasts and the TV posts are the same as last year's and the year before and the year before (including mine) and the year before and . . .

Christmas in Uk was/is the same...in fact fatalities over Christmas in UK showed a dramatic drop against the national daily average.

[cumgranosalum]

We can't stop people from dying....but we can stop ourselves from dying in a certain way.

So during this time, NEVER GET IN A CAR and avoid places where a car has good odds of hitting you.

simple.

now you won't be this statistic. or odds much, much, much lower...

complete nonsense post - the stas show the same death rate as any other day. just because you aren't in a car doesn't really help either - the stats are for "road users" - this includes pedestrians.

[chasntong]

Motorcycles again over 80%

How many of those fatalities are from motorcycles

Id love to see yearly figures.

I think the motorcycle thing does skew Thailands road fatality figures

They focus a lot on motorcycles because it is easier to stop and collect from them. Or impound them. Most of the fatalities are done to motorcyclist by cars. An accident is an accident no matter what kind of vehicle is used. Until the Bib start taking vehicles from every drunk and illegal driver the roads will never be safe.

You could focus on motorbikes everyday of the year, not because they are easier to stop, around Pattaya at least 70% either don't wear crash helmets, or have 3+ on a the bike, ride up the wrong way on the road etc, you don't have to check if they are drunk, they are just breaking the law.

[uthaithanirules]

Motorcycles again over 80%

How many of those fatalities are from motorcycles

Id love to see yearly figures.

I think the motorcycle thing does skew Thailands road fatality figures

They focus a lot on motorcycles because it is easier to stop and collect from them. Or impound them. Most of the fatalities are done to motorcyclist by cars. An accident is an accident no matter what kind of vehicle is used. Until the Bib start taking vehicles from every drunk and illegal driver the roads will never be safe.

What i mean by that is basically, where would Thailand stand in world road carnage rankings for everything else but motorcycles.

Not that I even exactly trust sources that say thailand is 2nd in the world with road fatalities.

And it seems impossible to actually get yearly figures fron the net re: Thailand

[cumgranosalum]

Motorcycles again over 80%

How many of those fatalities are from motorcycles

Id love to see yearly figures.

I think the motorcycle thing does skew Thailands road fatality figures

They focus a lot on motorcycles because it is easier to stop and collect from them. Or impound them. Most of the fatalities are done to motorcyclist by cars. An accident is an accident no matter what kind of vehicle is used. Until the Bib start taking vehicles from every drunk and illegal driver the roads will never be safe.

What i mean by that is basically, where would Thailand stand in world road carnage rankings for everything else but motorcycles.

Not that I even exactly trust sources that say thailand is 2nd in the world with road fatalities.

And it seems impossible to actually get yearly figures fron the net re: Thailand

Road safety stats arre very open to interpretation and the Thai authorities figures are often at odds with the WHO who I would argue are te most reliable, but of course not immediate.

They also explain how the stats are gathered and interpreted.

I agree that thee road deaths per 100k figure that ranks Thailand second in the world (WHO) does NOT give the full picture and those who seem to say "There you go! Second most dangerous in the world" are being overly simplistic and jumping to conclusions.

we DON"T know the criteria for collection of these figures 9yet) I'm not even sure who is collating or releasing them and by Thai standards they could be wildly misrepresentational....however they seem to be analogous to the normal daily figures so what they hope to prove is a mystery.

as for the comments on this thread, well it seems that many posters are many massive assumptions and ignoring ALL evidence before making their baseless, preconceived comments

[cumgranosalum]

Motorcycles again over 80%

How many of those fatalities are from motorcycles

Id love to see yearly figures.

I think the motorcycle thing does skew Thailands road fatality figures

They focus a lot on motorcycles because it is easier to stop and collect from them. Or impound them. Most of the fatalities are done to motorcyclist by cars. An accident is an accident no matter what kind of vehicle is used. Until the Bib start taking vehicles from every drunk and illegal driver the roads will never be safe.

You could focus on motorbikes everyday of the year, not because they are easier to stop, around Pattaya at least 70% either don't wear crash helmets, or have 3+ on a the bike, ride up the wrong way on the road etc, you don't have to check if they are drunk, they are just breaking the law.

is this an established figure or a guess?

[kiwikeith]

Motorcycles again over 80%

How many of those fatalities are from motorcycles

Id love to see yearly figures.

I think the motorcycle thing does skew Thailands road fatality figures

I am glad to see the crack down on Helmets has worked well, I see even more people around song kran not wearing them, up to 4 people on a bike usualy young kids included with zero protection, falangs included they don't take any notice either.

Edited April 18, 2016 by kiwikeith

[emilymat]

Interesting last paragraph in the OP.

The suggestion I assume is that we should be using buses and taxi's. Who has ever heard of a driver of these vehicles being the worse for wear?. I think I would take my chances in my own vehicle if I have to go somewhere.

[SOTIRIOS]

........this speaks volumes......

........enough of the polite deniers......

[dcpo]

Is Songkran more dangerous than 7 days chosen at random? Looking into the stats I can find no evidence that it is, and some reason to believe that it isn't.

[z42]

These figures (of injuries at least) from the OP are very likely to have been heavily watered down in spite of them being the worst ever statistics already. Get this, In the BP today, the Public Health Ministry's deputy permanent secretary said that upwards of 25,000 (twenty five thousand) had been admitted to hospitals in Thailand to receive treatment related to road accidents during the songkrann period so far.

The same person said that the 3800 or so that were reported injured in official statistics are seriously injured. The other 21000 or so I guess will have less serious injuries (whatever that means).

This is absolutely abhorrent however it is dressed up. I've been here a few years, but even am pretty shocked just by the numbers mentioned.

PS, I can't link to BP as per forum rules, but if you type "worst ever road toll songkrann bangkok post"

[kensisaket]

Saying motorcycles skew these figures is ridiculous. It's like saying there are no motorcycles in Thailand.

[Brer Fox]

Bear in mind these are only the numbers who died at the scene,one wonders how many you could add,that died later in hospital.

yes they who die once they have left the scene dont count.

number's to the 16th so another day to add to.

Where did you receive the criteria for determining statistics?

My understanding is the same in Vietnam and that is:

1. If the person dies at the scene of the accident then it is classified as a road death.

2. If the person dies later in hospital from injuries then the death is classified as and "accident".