Do Thai people know how to drive safely?

[giddyup]

3 hours ago, Henryford said:

Some old farangs are just as bad, they think because they drive in a country with no traffic laws they can drive like d**kheads too.

There are laws, just because Thais tend to disregard them doesn't mean they aren't there. Funny, most of the accidents involving falangs I see reported, the drivers tend to be on the young side, not old. When you get old you tend to drive more carefully, not like a young hoon who thinks he's bulletproof.

[giddyup]

2 hours ago, vogie said:

I think the Thais drive quite well considering the roads are not often policed, can you imagine the chaos in our countries of origin without the police.  

Thais drive quite well? Statistics prove you wrong.

[DLang]

Getting behind the wheel and you get a psychological sense of being invisible.

 

This true all over the World.

 

Back home you see the odd nosepicker, thinking they're some how invisible.

 

It is a window into the true psyche of the person.

 

 

Consider it a window into true Thainess -

[vogie]

48 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Thais drive quite well? Statistics prove you wrong.

 

If you're going to quote me, why not finish my sentence, not just what fits your agenda?

have you a link to these statistics?

[JaseTheBass]

22 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

 

Your missus is the exception then because most Thai drivers are appallingly bad drivers. No knowledge of Highway Code, keeping a safe distance from the car in front of you, braking for no apparent reason etc etc.

 

Just look at the FB page Bad driving in Thailand and you can see all sorts of examples of what I mean

 

 

Which highway code?

 

Most foreigners who talk about 'the Highway Code' have no idea about the Thai one. Which is just as well, as there are some insane pieces of legislation in there which are best avoided.

[gdgbb]

On 17/08/2016 at 10:01 AM, seajae said:

hahahahahaha, the million dollar question, face, laziness,  arrogance and self importance rate highly. The fact that they have never learnt the road rules(or that they even care about them) doesnt help, driving in Thailand can be pretty scary really as you know many of the other drivers/riders simply dont care or think of other road users, they do whatever they want when they want. Until such time as the police are given decent cars to patrol the roads and they start pulling up all the drivers/riders that are breaking the law it will not change, trouble is you have to get the police to come out of the air conditioned offices and be prepared to work day and night. The roads are a joke here, you take your life in your hands everytime you go on them and you need to drive/ride thinking this so you are always ready to avoid the idiots

 

"...  arrogance and self importance rate highly."

That seems to be the predominant trait with non-Thai drivers posting here who seem to think that they alone are god's gift to motoring.

[giddyup]

3 hours ago, vogie said:

 

If you're going to quote me, why not finish my sentence, not just what fits your agenda?

have you a link to these statistics?

The statistics are available for the world to see, just do a Google search, but here, I'll do it for you http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/work/738124/thailand-roads-second-deadliest-in-world-un-agency-finds The rest of your sentence has no relevance, you can't say "Thais drive quite well considering...." You can put anything at the end of that sentence, like, considering they have no common sense, considering they disregard all road rules, etc, etc.

[gdgbb]

16 hours ago, berybert said:

Yes other countries have bad drivers. But not many have a death rate anywhere near Thailands.

Thais are terrible drivers. They do not have the ability to think about what other drivers are going  to do, therefore you will see far more accidents in  Thailand than most other countries.

I could crash 4 or 5 times a week if I wanted to and none would be my fault. As a professional driver I am able to second guess what others will do.

 

 

"As a professional driver I am able to second guess what others will do."

 

That's a bit cocky, isn't it, professional drivers don't have accidents?  Maybe you're special but complacency may bite you in the arse sometime.

 

 

[giddyup]

2 minutes ago, gdgbb said:

 

"As a professional driver I am able to second guess what others will do."

 

That's a bit cocky, isn't it, professional drivers don't have accidents?  Maybe you're special but complacency may bite you in the arse sometime.

 

 

A "professional driver" only means someone who gets paid to drive, could be the school bus, a taxi etc.

[gdgbb]

4 hours ago, giddyup said:

Thais drive quite well? Statistics prove you wrong.

 

Why misquote him?  He didn't say that Thais drive quite well, he qualified his statement by saying that there is a lot less chaos on the roads than would be expected for mainly unpoliced roads and that they drive quite well in those circumstances.

[gdgbb]

30 minutes ago, giddyup said:

The statistics are available for the world to see, just do a Google search, but here, I'll do it for you http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/work/738124/thailand-roads-second-deadliest-in-world-un-agency-finds The rest of your sentence has no relevance, you can't say "Thais drive quite well considering...." You can put anything at the end of that sentence, like, considering they have no common sense, considering they disregard all road rules, etc, etc.

 

You're wrong.  It's the last part of your post that is irrelevant nonsense, any statement can be qualified to put it into a specific context if the writer chooses.

[giddyup]

10 minutes ago, gdgbb said:

 

Why misquote him?  He didn't say that Thais drive quite well, he qualified his statement by saying that there is a lot less chaos on the roads than would be expected for mainly unpoliced roads and that they drive quite well in those circumstances.

Read his post He said "Thais drive quite well considering", tell me exactly what I'm misquoting? The quote is meaningless when he qualifies it. He could say, they drive quite well considering none of them ever took a driving lesson, or they drive quite well considering they do it in their sleep. He also asked me to back up my statement that "statistics prove him wrong", which I've done, as to why that fact needed proof I don't know, I thought it was common knowledge.

[gdgbb]

12 minutes ago, giddyup said:

A "professional driver" only means someone who gets paid to drive, could be the school bus, a taxi etc.

 

Really?  Thank you for explaining that, I'm sure that I would never have known otherwise.  But why are you telling me, why not point it out to the "professional driver"?

[giddyup]

6 minutes ago, gdgbb said:

 

Really?  Thank you for explaining that, I'm sure that I would never have known otherwise.  But why are you telling me, why not point it out to the "professional driver"?

Because you seem a bit on the slow side, and why are you replying to a response I directed at Vogie?

[giddyup]

10 minutes ago, gdgbb said:

 

You're wrong.  It's the last part of your post that is irrelevant nonsense, any statement can be qualified to put it into a specific context if the writer chooses.

It just makes a joke of his statement that "Thais drive quite well", but obviously you don't see that.

[vogie]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

The statistics are available for the world to see, just do a Google search, but here, I'll do it for you http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/work/738124/thailand-roads-second-deadliest-in-world-un-agency-finds The rest of your sentence has no relevance, you can't say "Thais drive quite well considering...." You can put anything at the end of that sentence, like, considering they have no common sense, considering they disregard all road rules, etc, etc.

 

I will quote you "Thais have no common sense" that is something I would expect a racist to say or some-one that doesn't know any Thais. Either that or you're trolling? 

[giddyup]

2 minutes ago, vogie said:

 

I will quote you "Thais have no common sense" that is something I would expect a racist to say or some-one that doesn't know any Thais. Either that or you're trolling? 

I was just giving you examples of how you can make excuses for any bad behaviour, it wasn't meant to be taken literally, but I guess you've run out of points for a constructive discussion and now looking to sideline the issue. It seems when people no longer have anything worthwhile to say they accuse someone of trolling. Bye, bye.

[vogie]

43 minutes ago, giddyup said:

I was just giving you examples of how you can make excuses for any bad behaviour, it wasn't meant to be taken literally, but I guess you've run out of points for a constructive discussion and now looking to sideline the issue. It seems when people no longer have anything worthwhile to say they accuse someone of trolling. Bye, bye.

 

Like my earlier post, you only quote one small part of my post, I can assure you it is not the Thais that have no "common sense" and it is very difficult to "discuss" a post when only snippets of my post is being quoted. Does arrogance and ignorance ring any bells? Bye bye.

[Kwasaki]

   

[Gary A]

Thai drivers are not much different than farang drivers. Some are reckless and some are overly cautious. I have a farang friend who is the worst driver I have ever seem. Fortunately his wife now does all the driving. 

[55Jay]

On 8/17/2016 at 5:25 PM, 55Jay said:

I was in the middle east for many years before coming to live here, so I was already accustomed to atrocious driving, not only by the locals but by the many Indians and Pakistanis employed there.  Thais are as bad in some ways but also better (or not as bad) in others.  Wife and I had to relax a bit when we moved here, we were too aggressive and used to driving by horn.  I'm still amazed when we visit BKK at how quiet the traffic is.

Oy, how many of you blokes been in the middle east and know what I'm talking about?  Drivers and traffic in Bangkok compared to say, Cairo, Egypt?  I remember my first trip to Cairo and down to Alexandria... when I landed back in Bahrain 2 weeks later, and was on me way home in the car,  I remember saying quietly to meself, aloud, "Good to be back in Civilization!".

 

[joeyg]

My Lao girlfriends sister was just killed this morning driving her food cart home by a hit and run driver.  26 years old, one year old baby. If the family catches the driver outside Chonburi  he'll be crab food in some rice paddy.  As it should be.

[robertthebruce]

2 minutes ago, joeyg said:

My Loa girlfriends sister was just killed this morning driving her food cart home by a hit and run driver.  26 years old, one year old baby. If the family catches the driver outside Chonburi  he'll be crab food in some rice paddy.  As it should be.

 

 

Gosh how sad is that, especially leaving  a small baby...the family must be devastated...

 

sorry to to hear this..

 

 

[joeyg]

Thank you Appreciated.

 

[JAFO]

I've posted in a few of these Thai bad driver threads in the past. IMHO its not that they are bad drivers, they just have a bit to much freedom and some do not know how to manage that. Those usually get resolved by themselves.

 

I personally have no issue driving here at all. But as a former race car driver this environment suits me just fine. You have to pay attention but that is really no different than anywhere. I think the single biggest contributor to the vehicle death statistics is the country is changing its form of transpo from scooters to cars. What was probably a 85% scooter 15% car some 20 years back is likely getting close to 60 / 40 now and therein lies the problem. The new, more affluent, generation likely never drove a scooter so they tend not to look out for them thus the high accident rate. Cars/trucks and motorcycles/scooters do not mix well on big high traffic areas.

 

But again, You will not hear me whinge about it at all. Driving is driving. Even in the most controlled countries there are still absolutely horrific car wrecks and quite frequently. They will always exist with people and cars. 

[55Jay]

^ Thank you!   When in Rome....

 

I do not "enjoy" driving here as much as I do in the US though.  My wife doesn't either, says the drivers in the US are better and people tend to follow the rules more.

[joeyg]

3 hours ago, JAFO said:

I've posted in a few of these Thai bad driver threads in the past. IMHO its not that they are bad drivers, they just have a bit to much freedom and some do not know how to manage that. Those usually get resolved by themselves.

 

I personally have no issue driving here at all. But as a former race car driver this environment suits me just fine. You have to pay attention but that is really no different than anywhere. I think the single biggest contributor to the vehicle death statistics is the country is changing its form of transpo from scooters to cars. What was probably a 85% scooter 15% car some 20 years back is likely getting close to 60 / 40 now and therein lies the problem. The new, more affluent, generation likely never drove a scooter so they tend not to look out for them thus the high accident rate. Cars/trucks and motorcycles/scooters do not mix well on big high traffic areas.

 

But again, You will not hear me whinge about it at all. Driving is driving. Even in the most controlled countries there are still absolutely horrific car wrecks and quite frequently. They will always exist with people and cars. 

I'm glad you're comfortable driving here, after all that's what counts.

  https://asiancorrespondent.com/2014/02/study-thailand-roads-2nd-most-dangerous-in-the-world/

[JAFO]

4 minutes ago, joeyg said:

I'm glad you're comfortable driving here, after all that's what counts.

  https://asiancorrespondent.com/2014/02/study-thailand-roads-2nd-most-dangerous-in-the-world/

 

Well clearly every one has different thresholds and capabilities. Some foreigners here were uncomfortable driving in their home country so we know it will only be worse here by a factor of likely 5 or more. If you are not comfortable driving, then don't do it, its really that simple.

 

As for stats and reports, read'em all, seen'em all. They do not affect me one way or another. Its a shame the loss of life but time will fix it.  For me, I have a job to do when I get behind the wheel and that's drive to my best ability and not add to the stat. But again, as I have stated in other threads, some older foreigners faculties are failing (eye sight, response, reaction, patience etc) I would guess most shouldn't be driving in their own country yet I see them on Harley's, driving dangerously slow on freeways, I know a few men that let their wives drive now exclusively. That's a good thing. I struggled with people 70 and up in the US, they were a danger. 

 

[joeyg]

Just now, JAFO said:

 

Well clearly every one has different thresholds and capabilities. Some foreigners here were uncomfortable driving in their home country so we know it will only be worse here by a factor of likely 5 or more. If you are not comfortable driving, then don't do it, its really that simple.

 

As for stats and reports, read'em all, seen'em all. They do not affect me one way or another. Its a shame the loss of life but time will fix it.  For me, I have a job to do when I get behind the wheel and that's drive to my best ability and not add to the stat. But again, as I have stated in other threads, some older foreigners faculties are failing (eye sight, response, reaction, patience etc) I would guess most shouldn't be driving in their own country yet I see them on Harley's, driving dangerously slow on freeways, I know a few men that let their wives drive now exclusively. That's a good thing. I struggled with people 70 and up in the US, they were a danger. 

 

I've got 20/20 at 64 and have done some racing in "The Day" also.  Certainly not to your level of expertiseI'm sure. I'm quite physically fit and was an excellent albeit in my younger days somewhat aggressive driver.  If you are content driving here, great!  I try to stay out of the street here as much as possible, period.  In the past year I've seen 5 traffic fatalities in front of my face in Pattaya.

 

 I'm hard pressed to think of one I ever saw in the USA.

 

However, Happy Motoring!

[Kwasaki]

No one living here would be surprised on reports and studies from western countries,  it really depends on as said how comfortable you are driving here,  an advisory answer to anyone's concerns are simple.

The referents to old people is insulting to say the least.