Gen Prawit highlights policy of improving road safety and reducing traffic congestion

[CarolJadzia]

6 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

One has to wonder if there is any sincerity behind these proposals. They are so long overdue, and the country is so deficient when it comes to traffic safety. Thailand remains #2 in the world in traffic fatalities, and is fast catching up with Libya. Maybe the TAT can brag about that too. I have never seen a speeding ticket being issued here. I have heard stories, but of all the days I have spent on the highways, have never seen one. On many occasions I am traveling at 120kph, which I consider the maximum safe speed on a Thai highway, and people shoot past me doing 150-180 kph. With all of the obstacles, outlets, U-turn lanes, slow trucks and out of control drivers, reasonable speeds are required if one is concerned about survival, and the preservation of ones limbs, and one's family. 

 

There is so much to be done, one does not even know where to start. I suppose adding another 2,500 highway patrol cars would be a good place to start, and taking the existing highway patrolmen to the wood shed for hanging out in the office, and playing cards, pokeman and watching you tube would also be a good start. Get those guys out onto the highways. They only seem to show up after an accident. Another good place to start would be to start writing 10,000 baht reckless driving tickets. My guess is the word would travel around the nation in a few days, and people would start to consider that, when driving like banshees from hell. 

 

That's the nice thing with "Safety II" thinking, it starts with us.

It does not expect the world to change, just to understand why people do what they do and do our best to avoid the situations that lead to conflict. 

 

Let's take your example of Speed, this is a core "Safety I" flagship policy - "Speed Kills" so what is needed is ever more speed enforcement.

What if I said that in the UK, where they record such data, 95% of pedestrians killed where by compliant, non speeding drivers. 

In Thailand over 70% of Road Accident fatalities are motorcycle riders. By far the biggest numbers of motorcycles on Thai roads, and by far the greatest number of vehicles involved in accidents, are small scooters, hardly capable of reaching a speed limit. 

To speed requires open clear spaces, these do not tend to be the places where we find pedestrians. That would be built up areas where there are lots of interactions between road users of different types, that is where people tend to have conflicts, at junctions and cross overs. Not where you tend to find speeders. Of course speed plays a part in how accidents happen, but it is only a contributory factor in a far bigger picture.

 

Just focusing on Thai Enforcers to suddenly make the roads safe just is not going to happen. We are five years in to the "Decade of action for Road Safety" and it is failing to make any real impact of Road Safety Fatalities. The reason is it only focuses on enforcement of helmets and seat belts.  

 

Working together to address the "fundamental attribution errors" and making the roads a safer place for us all is possible.

After all it is what we are doing every day already. 

[cumgranosalum]

Thailand and ASEAN have had a road safety body for years now - the proposals they come up with are perfectly acceptable scientific approaches that would work.......the problem is that nobody listens or takes the advice.

 

the fact that the General has made this announcement shows would seem to indicate that he is completely unaware of any of the road safety research and advice that has been carried out both in Thailand and on behalf of the country.

It must be VERY frustrating for those involved in road safety to hear such remarks from someone who is meant to be in total control.

 

here are just some of the reports and action plans the general appears unaware of....

 

Road safety Action plans (DoLT)

2004 to 2008

WHO - http://www.searo.who.int/thailand/areas/roadsafety/en/

Proposals by the Working Group submitted to the Cabinet for approval a set of road safety legislative amendments with an aim that they are effective and enforced by the end of 2016.

 

Asia Development bank

In 2010, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) established the Sustainable Transport Initiative (STI) to align its transport operations with ADB’s long-term strategic framework, Strategy 2020.

 

Decade of Action for Road safety in Thailand

 

(Office of Transport & Traffic policy & Planning)

 

• “The Government of Thailand has set the goal to reduce the number of deaths resulting from road crashes by half by 2020.
• The effort covers road safety management, infrastructure, vehicles, drivers’ behavior, and emergency medical systems.
• The cabinet assigned the center for Road Safety to prepare action plans with aims to promote road safety in Thailand and implement the plans to achieve goals as defined in the Moscow Declaration, which is to reduce road traffic fatalities to less than 10 people in every 100,000 population in 2020. “

 

 *****

 

What would be nice is an announcement by the Junta that they were going to take and implement the advice that has be proffered over the last 2 decades and actually implement it.

This carried out not by the military but by plain-clothed EXPERTS who fully understand the situation and the science of road safety.

Edited September 16, 2016 by cumgranosalum

[CarolJadzia]

5 hours ago, cumgranosalum said:

 

 

Decade of Action for Road safety in Thailand

 

(Office of Transport & Traffic policy & Planning)

 

• “The Government of Thailand has set the goal to reduce the number of deaths resulting from road crashes by half by 2020.
• The effort covers road safety management, infrastructure, vehicles, drivers’ behavior, and emergency medical systems.
• The cabinet assigned the center for Road Safety to prepare action plans with aims to promote road safety in Thailand and implement the plans to achieve goals as defined in the Moscow Declaration, which is to reduce road traffic fatalities to less than 10 people in every 100,000 population in 2020. “

 

 *****

 

What would be nice is an announcement by the Junta that they were going to take and implement the advice that has be proffered over the last 2 decades and actually implement it.

This carried out not by the military but by plain-clothed EXPERTS who fully understand the situation and the science of road safety.

 

Unfortunately the "Decade of action for road safety" only focuses on enforcement. Millions of US dollars poured in over the last six years that are ONLY focused on enforcement of Helmet and seat belts. Recently, due to the fact that the approach is failing to make any progress, the powers behind the scheme were asking for new proposals for funding to address the situation, I persuade the offer as we are working on a project to offer defensive rider training in Thailand. Only the "Decade of action for road safety" does not fund education programmes of any kind. Only projects that support enforcement. 

 

So the situation will continue to get worse, only now are people starting to realise that you cannot enforce safety onto people. Only compliance where enforced. Personal safety is a personal choice, we can teach people how to be safer and share the roads together. How to drive and ride defensively. But for as long as the focus is only on enforcement, it will continue to fail. 

[cumgranosalum]

On September 16, 2016 at 4:50 PM, CarolJadzia said:

 

Unfortunately the "Decade of action for road safety" only focuses on enforcement. Millions of US dollars poured in over the last six years that are ONLY focused on enforcement of Helmet and seat belts. Recently, due to the fact that the approach is failing to make any progress, the powers behind the scheme were asking for new proposals for funding to address the situation, I persuade the offer as we are working on a project to offer defensive rider training in Thailand. Only the "Decade of action for road safety" does not fund education programmes of any kind. Only projects that support enforcement. 

 

So the situation will continue to get worse, only now are people starting to realise that you cannot enforce safety onto people. Only compliance where enforced. Personal safety is a personal choice, we can teach people how to be safer and share the roads together. How to drive and ride defensively. But for as long as the focus is only on enforcement, it will continue to fail. 

"Unfortunately the "Decade of action for road safety" only focuses on enforcement." - the proposals - read 'em - were to encompass all aspects of road safety - as I said it isn't the reports and research that are at fault - it is the failure of this and previous governments to take the slightest notice of the various bodies and institutions that have proffered advice. this a is why the general's comments are so exasperating.

[cyberfarang]

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