Why Do People Drive So Bad In Thailand

[phusingpete]

Most of them manage to travel from A to B. So where is the problem?

To tell them that they are bad drivers one would as well have to show an example of a good driver. How to do that?

Most of the time I enjoy driving, I'm in Issan so traffic is not too bad.My main concern is the appaling driving of motor sai riders. One pulled straight in front of me from a side road as I drove down a highway, he pulled right out into the middle of the road, at speed. Thankfully my breaks worked well but I had to swerve into the oncoming lane to avoid the plonker,lucky for me it was empty. No doubt if I had hit him it would have been my fault and as I have a fortuner some one would post here that some guy in a fortuner had killed a motorcyclist.

I think much of this problem stems from young kids riding motorbikes without any training in road use, taking there ignorance and lack of driving skills into adulthood. Recently went to a burn in for an 11 year old killed on his motor bike ,another was seriously injured,this really should not be tolerated, particularly as it can be rectified easily. Even teaching youngsters to ride a pushbike on the road would help, we used to be taught this at school.

My wifes young niece is now borrowing my wifes motorsai which I object to not only for her own safety but what happens if she hit's another child or damages another vehicle, who is responsible??I can guess.

[Tony Clifton]

Why are there TV's in police boxes?

The lottery draw.

[TBWG]

My wifes young niece is now borrowing my wifes motorsai which I object to not only for her own safety but what happens if she hit's another child or damages another vehicle, who is responsible??I can guess.

hi

Not sure if people are aware but insurance on most motorsais is invalid!! Always assuming they have any in the first place

Unless rider is of legal age to drive, has a valid driving licence and is wearing a crash helmet.

Guess that excludes about 85% of bikes on the road. Would also expect insurers to decline to pay a claim where manufacturers seating capacity is exceeded, s'pose that means only about 5% are legit.

Now if that motorsai has the remotest farang connection no prizes for guessing who will end up picking up the tab

TBWG

[Felt 35]

Most of them manage to travel from A to B. So where is the problem?

To tell them that they are bad drivers one would as well have to show an example of a good driver. How to do that?

…and between A-B, 12-13000 thousand of their own people get killed every year.

They have a Government, which I suppose; sit with the power to line up the driver education.

BTW, I don’t think anyone get hurt from hearing that you do something wrong or bad.

That gives us a change to learn.

[phonar]

I'm from Malaysia, the country located next to South Thailand.

I been visited to Hatyai, Songkla, Krabi, Phuket, Bangkok & Chiang Mai.

Tell you the truth, the way that thai people driving at Thailand is good enough than my country. Although in Bangkok is abit worst which might due to traffic jams pressure. Here is what i notice between them and my country. Overall the road user in Thai are more common sense around them and follow the rules/law. Ofcos there still some didn't following the rules by didnt wearing helmet. But the numbers of traffic offense here is twice less than in my country.

And in Thai, people tolerate within each other unlike my country with the typical My Father Road altitute. I feel more enjoy and confident while driving in Thai than in my own country. I even witness a Thai youngster been summon for not wearing helmet while in Phuket, the guy just keep silent as a prove admit his mistake. Unlike my country the offense will keep saying excuse and asking for bribe to settle it.

Here in my country, with only 1/3 population of the Thai. With average 15 people death in road accident per day and half of the number is motorcyclist. Most of the motorcyclist who dead is due to hit & run by car, overrun the red light, riding on the wrong way and ofcos didn't wearing helmet.

At here rveryone who driving any kind of vehicle is lack of tolerate, no street smart of common sense and me-first or my-road altitute. Traffic light is invisible n many road user just simply cross it even during yellow turn red or when it is red light, which in the end lead to road accident.

Even the driving license can be bought from our government agency. No driving license or been catch for not follow the rules? A bit of bribery can settle anything here.

Edited March 20, 2007 by phonar

[MarcoH]

Luckily we dont have so many tunnels in thailand,, here is good clip from Russia...

[draggons]

Bad drivers!!!!!!

some bastard wrote off my pick up last night when my wife was taking a couple of friends into Bkk. By all accounts he hit the missus at about 130kph and managed to leg it afterwards as he thought he'd killed them all, truck rolled 3 times! The little bastard better keep running!!!!!! all in hospital 1 very serious!

Bad drivers surely not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lancelot]

Notice how most Thais walk? I mean they wander all over the place, never looking to see if they may bump into a fellow pedestrian. They just think about getting from "A" to "B" and don't "thinking too much" about the other guy.

They drive the same way

[Maigo6]

I think much of this problem stems from young kids riding motorbikes without any training in road use, taking there ignorance and lack of driving skills into adulthood. Recently went to a burn in for an 11 year old killed on his motor bike ,another was seriously injured,this really should not be tolerated, particularly as it can be rectified easily. Even teaching youngsters to ride a pushbike on the road would help, we used to be taught this at school.

My wifes young niece is now borrowing my wifes motorsai which I object to not only for her own safety but what happens if she hit's another child or damages another vehicle, who is responsible??I can guess.

Last week in our village my next door neighbour was killed instantly and her friend died 6 days later, they were on a motorcycle and the girl could not ride it properly, she could not stop at a T junction and went into the main road straight in front of a pick-up truck.

The two girls were both 14.

Edited April 18, 2007 by Maigo6

[thaired]

Notice how most Thais walk? I mean they wander all over the place, never looking to see if they may bump into a fellow pedestrian. They just think about getting from "A" to "B" and don't "thinking too much" about the other guy.

They drive the same way

Spot on Lancelot, I couldn't agree more, I think they have no neck muscles to turn thier heads when walking. As for the Pillocks driving I'm in a rage every time I venture out. Like this lunch driving back to work, I wanted to turn right & so did the bloke behind me. His bright idea was to turn & try & undertake me when we were both doing the turn. I'm still fuming now.

As for that chap from Malaysia....god help them if they have worse drivers.

[helicoptor]

Bad drivers!!!!!!

some bastard wrote off my pick up last night when my wife was taking a couple of friends into Bkk. By all accounts he hit the missus at about 130kph and managed to leg it afterwards as he thought he'd killed them all, truck rolled 3 times! The little bastard better keep running!!!!!! all in hospital 1 very serious!

Bad drivers surely not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is Sick I hope they recover soon

The thing that gets me is the way they just ride (scooters) straight into the main road from a side road without looking I have lost count the number of times I have had to swerve/brake/sound my horn on these occasions, the culprit oblivious or without a care to me every time

Another mind <deleted> is indicating left then turning right (and vice versa)

Do they get thai licences as free gifts in dried noodle packs? Just a thought...

[sibeymai]

Truth is, most soi dogs have more road sense than Thai drivers.

Harsh, but true.

[Plus]

There's a road on outskirts of Bangkok where you are guaranteed to see at least one freshly killed dog every morning. Not so many dead people though.

[Rykbanlor]

Notice how most Thais walk? I mean they wander all over the place, never looking to see if they may bump into a fellow pedestrian. They just think about getting from "A" to "B" and don't "thinking too much" about the other guy.

They drive the same way

Thats it in a nutshell . They'll stop dead in the market gazing off at something, oblivious to people behingd them, although I've noticed backpackers are good at this too.......

I used to drive up and down between Lampang and Bangkok frequently and witnessed some real kamikaze drivers............yeah, as somebody noted above not all Thais are bad drivers and I hear that, not everyone can be tarred with the same brush......but they seem to me to be more dangerous in general.

Lack of law enforcement........of course if you know that at best you have to pay a little kickback then thats not a deterrent ( and if its rush hour in bangkok it seems you can pretty much do what you want without gettin pulled over ), and a lot of them just don't seem to have a rational concept of safety ergo they often don't seem to realise quite how narley some of their motorised capers can be.

I also take buses in bangkok and am appaled at the way they drive.....a few weeks ago after this particular driver had kerbcrawled the bus stop for a few minutes he suddenly decides he's off, rams into gear and takes off, the doors of the bus snapping shut on some poor girl who just happened to be struggling up onto the bus.

Myself and an old fella, the only two passengers to see this, bellowed at the driver to stop, he does, and the ticket lady comes and helps the girl to a seat......what does the ticketlady say?.........Oh.....mai pen rai na!

Of course why make a fuss over that, its not like the girl was seriously injured............maybe if she'd been killed ......

Nip it in the bud........treat the root cause, not the symptoms.

[Maigo6]

I can remember many years ago driving in France with other guys from UK, we all said " The French must be the worlds worst drivers ".

A year later, I was in Italy and I thought the Italians must be the worst drivers.

A year after that I went to Spain, and I thought , The Spanish must be the worst drivers ever.

Can you see a pattern forming ?

It don't matter where you are, you will always be a better driver, even if you aren't. ( hard to admit )

And of course those drivers were no better or worse than anybody else, it's just that I was new to their driving style, therefore I assumed that they was wrong and I was right..............( typical attitude )

In reality, I was the new boy on the block and had to adjust to a new driving enviroment.

Same in Thailand, a Farang with no knowledge of the Thai way of driving is a danger to himself and others until he learns the Thai style of driving.

[Luckydog]

Actually they are very good drivers. But they do stupidly dangerous things all the time!

When a traffic light turns to Red at least three people will drive throught it....

Cop "Didn't you see that Red Light?"

Motorcyclist " Yes. But I didn't see YOU!"

True,there is not much 'Road Rage' imo because everyone breaks the Bluddy rules!

But there is some and it can be very violent. Shootings here in Pattaya are not unknown when things get out of hand.

Recently, I refused to let a car overtake me on the inside as I was about to turn left, and when I stopped the driver got out and smashed my Windscreen!

I think that the reason Thais drive SO dangerously is because they hate RULES.......

Had to smile the other day. My Wife seeking to please me probably, leaned over my shoulder

whilst I drove my Yamaha down the wrong side of the road, and said "You drive SO WELL now. Just like a Thai!!!!!

[wilko]

I've just completed a 3000km round trip down to Surathani across to Phuket and up to SE seaboard and I have to say that in general the driving isn't that bad.

I've mentioned before the cultural aspects of the history of driving in Thailand...but if you just repeat "I'm in a boat...I'm in a boat" it all makes sense!

[andypat]

seems to stem from an almost complete lack of driver education and non-existent law enforcement - this sums it up!!!!!!!

If you drive carefully & DO NOT loose your temper you have a good chance to survive driving in LOS

[Maigo6]

Actually they are very good drivers. But they do stupidly dangerous things all the time!

When a traffic light turns to Red at least three people will drive throught it....

That's why I don't floor it as soon as the lights go green, too many light jumpers...it's the way it is, I will run a light also when I feel I will get away with it.

Once one gets used to the ways of driving in Thailand, it's not so bad at all.

[Plus]

It's really about a balance - the level of your driving skills and the things you think you can get away with.

Good drivers might be testing their abilities but unskilled drivers might be driving very cautiously and so have less accidents. These changes in behaviour sometimes are very prominent from country to country or even from region to region.

[DragonQuest]

Some taxi's give me a heart attack.

[wilko]

At the end of the day, Farangs who have problems driving here are probably not that competent themselves