WHO report on worldwide road safety reveals room for improvement in Thailand

[jamesbrock]

There is no 2015 study, it was based on the data from 2013. It's all 'estimates'.

If you go through the W.H.O. country profiles from around the world then you will also find there are a few countries who do not report at all.

So Thailand is at No2 behind a war zone - amongst the countries that record their figures.

But there are other things as well. Thailand has ten times the number of motorcycles compared to most developed countries. 80% of road fatalities in Thailand are reported to be Motorcyclists. Most could be addressed if people were taught basic on-road interactive skills rather than only off-road vehicle handling skills. But people still prefer to blame accidents on spirits instead.

Thailand does have a higher percentage motorcycles than most developed countries, but it has the lowest percentage of motorcycles of all its regional neighbours bar Malaysia - yet it has the highest percentage of deaths of motorcycle users of all its regional neighbours.

For example, 95% of registered vehicles in Vietnam are motorcycles, as opposed to 59% in Thailand, but only 60% of road deaths in Vietnam are motorcycle users, compared to 73% in Thailand. Obviously, there are a large number of factors involved, but one telling statistic stands out: the helmet wearing rate: Vietnam - 96% Drivers, 83% Passengers; Thailand - 52% Drivers, 20% Passengers.

Research has shown that correctly wearing a helmet can cut the risk of death by 40% and reduce the risk of serious head injuries by almost 70%, and since head injuries account for up to 88% of motorcycle user fatalities, strictly enforcing the wearing of helmets could cut Thailand's road toll by more than 25%.

Again: just enforcing the existing helmet wearing laws could cut Thailand's road toll by more than 25%.

24,237 people die according to the WHO

17,693 (73%) of these are motorcycle users

15,570 (88%) of these motorcycle users died due to head injuries

6,228 (40%) of these deaths could be prevented by wearing helmets

18,009 (25.7% reduction of original toll) possible road toll if wearing of motorcycle helmets is strictly enforced

This one simple strategy could reduce Thailand's death rate from 36.2 to 26.7 deaths per 100,000 - dropping it from 2^nd to 30^th in the list of deadliest countries.

Of course not wearing helmets doesn't cause accidents—speed, drink driving, reckless driving are the highest causes, mainly due to ineffectual driver education and lax enforcement—but the strict enforcement of wearing helmets would clearly cut the road toll.

[CarolJadzia]

While I respect your data as with all these things interpretation is everything.

The quoted "Vietnam - 96% Drivers, 83% " is only recorded amongst the Adults in three heavily enforced cities. It does not reflect the greater picture.

For example the helmet law at first only applied to adults, so only adults wore helmets, where they were enforced to do so.

Even with the huge investment and glossy claims made of Vietnams enforcement, even the enforcers only claim an 18% reduction in road accident fatalities.

http://millionssaved.cgdev.org/case-studies/vietnams-comprehensive-helmet-law

http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/5/08-057109/en/

You cannot enforce safety on to a system. Only compliance where enforced.

The helmet law came in to Thailand in 1984. Plenty of time for the standard "enforced" use protagonists to gather evidence on how enforcement has been effective.

Only it has not happened.

If all road users were still riding motorcycles like in Vietnam then the collisions would be between motorcycles, the majority of which are small scooters. So low speed interactions.

But it's the interactions between the vehicles that is the biggest problem in Thailand.

People are taught how to handle a vehicle off road in a simulated world.

They are not taught about the interactions between road users that is an integral part of the driving test, so therefore are an integral part of the test training, in the countries that have the safest roads.

Enforcement is not the only option, there is growing support to adopt an approach to road safety that is also being adopted in other safety critical worlds like aviation. Based on the Japanese 'Kaizen' business approach of continued improvement, it is often called "Safety II" thinking. Protagonists of this approach talk of 'recovery from command and control'.

It is already getting support applied to motorcycling in the UK as the standard 'Enforcement' approach has limitations there as well. There is a growing number of riders adopting the "No Surprise / No Accident" thinking both in the UK and now in Thailand.

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