Unnecessarily many road casualties in Thailand
KAE CH / Shutterstock.co
Every day many victims in traffic are regrettable, which would be absolutely unnecessary. The images are shown daily on television.
This week you saw how a motorcyclist, a police officer, ran a red light at great speed. This without necessity and so he crashed. The next day, a boy drove his motorbike into a parked truck at high speed. What goes through some people's heads remains a big question mark.
In Chang Mai, they have been keeping statistics on these events since the beginning of this year. It turned out that one in ten was a foreigner. The majority were motorbike drivers. From November 1 to 16, 2018, 13.051 accidents occurred in Chang Mai province, of which 246 were fatal, including 25 foreigners.
Most accidents occurred in the Muang area, followed by Sansai. Almost all of the deceased were motorbike riders aged between 16 and 25 and the accidents occurred between 6 and 10 pm.
A final striking fact was that a strong increase in traffic accidents was observed in the months of November and December.
Consciously participating in traffic at an appropriate speed still seems to be a step too high for some people.
Source: Wochenblitz
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I ride a moped every day in Bangkok and the roads are of such bizarre poor quality that it must cause accidents. When will money be put into asphalt / footpath instead of many unnecessary things.
Thailand has been officially number 1 for years in terms of most and most deadly traffic accidents…. It is no surprise to anyone who regularly travels in traffic. Thais know absolutely no discipline and have no understanding of the traffic rules. The only thing that counts for them is “me first”…except when the light changes from red to green…then they slowly get going again, of course with the mobile in hand. When I went for the 2nd 5 year renewal of my driver's license, we had to sit in a classroom for a few hours to watch the most horrific videos of traffic accidents. Not a Thai even looked at it for 1 minute… but they were busy with their mobile phones to exchange the most nonsense among themselves. The theoretical exam was taken in the adjoining classroom... Some of them took the test for the 7th time (!!!) but never passed. Afterwards they drove off again by car or moped (without a driver's license of course) ... During the "instruction" it was also explained that it is best to always sound the horn (honk) when you pass someone or when you perform a maneuver ... You have to be pro -think actively what the other road users might or might not do…because they don't think…Don't take into account one-way traffic, right of way or whatever. In addition, a lot of them are drunk, especially during the holidays, and Thailand has a lot of them.
same shit different day…people don't like to learn from mistakes here and so…
As a motorcyclist you are in the weakest position and you depend on the brains of taxi drivers and car drivers playing with Line and Facebook.
In addition, the roads in Bangkok are just bad with abnormal potholes and subsidence that almost nothing is done about.
It seems that in case of damage caused by poor road maintenance, the road owner can be sued and compensation is also given if relevant.
Logical in itself because if you have to pay road tax, the owner acknowledges that he is the boss and therefore also has obligations.
The motorcyclists should then learn not to go on the road anymore?
Car drivers buy off their responsibility through their car insurance and the tax collector or road owner has plenty of time and money to frustrate a lawsuit.
All this together will never improve in a country where looking away is the norm.
Disclaimer:
The described is seen through Western glasses and can therefore be interpreted completely differently by others 😉
I think it would help a lot to reduce the speed of motors. The driver does not think that they are only driving on two wheels and at too high a speed. If something happens on the road, the reaction time is usually too short to stop effectively. I have experienced a car slowing down in front of a zebra crossing, the motorcyclist who drove shortly after had not even seen anything, crashed into the car, the motor was completely destroyed and the driver ended up on the track 10 m in front of the car. luckily with only abrasions.
Yesterday for the celebration of old and new left from Huay Yai to Bamnet Barong via the 331 and 304.
Took 11 hours. Except for a few things went fine. Only on the last stretch to Pak chong Chai (1 lane available due to roadworks) was there a fool who wanted to overtake on both the left and the right. so that didn't work, then through the cones to still get his gram. On the other side there was little traffic, a double-decker came out of a corner at top speed, so we just squeezed back through the cones, just went well.
The traffic insight of the average Thai is sadly sad, but that of authorities is not much better. For example, like now closing several U-turns. Closing a U-turn only makes the next U-turn busier, which makes it more difficult to take the U-turn because people block each other's view of the roadway there. It would be much better to close one U-turn to one lane and then the next to the other lane, so that you have a better view of oncoming traffic at all times. But yeah, try telling them that.
I've been on a Big Bike for some time (say 60 years and here on a Honda CB500X) and I haven't had an accident here.
I'm curious if those 10% farangs aren't mainly young people who drive around Thailand without a driver's license on a scooter with the two of them and who I see making the strangest movements here without understanding the situation. Girls nowadays behave quite well and I see them steering the scooter with a very tall boy on the back. We live in Chiang Mai and I see them driving to Pai (according to Lonely Planet the place to go!)
Without the necessary experience here it is indeed very dangerous and one needs 110% concentration not to get into an accident. That's why I steer the bike with only attention to what is happening 180 degrees in front of me and my wife pays attention to the surroundings for example. I also don't hear from other Big Bikers that they find it so dangerous here or have had an accident. Well from our friend Pete from Aus who already broke everything (and still rides with a wooden leg) but that all happened in the 'safe' Aus!
It is not true that the Thai have no discipline because their life is quite disciplined, see the parking facilities for cars and scooters, neatly next to each other. We can never do that in the West. The same applies to public toilets that are available everywhere for free and have you seen them in the Netherlands?
What is also striking is that we farangs try to understand and explain the logic of this country based on our Western logic. The Dutch are particularly strong in this, in other words pedantic! That is not possible and therefore no longer possible because we simply cannot understand it.
We are here as Long Stay characters and if it is not for health reasons (!) no one will return from here to the 'logical' and 'safe' country of the Netherlands or Europe.
Incidentally, the roads here in the North are indeed much better as some BKK residents report from their place of residence and are also regularly maintained.
Regards,
Thai and discipline, now I really have to laugh. And what the public toilets that are indeed free have to do with discipline really eludes me.
I am of the opinion that the Thais generally have little or no discipline and in many cases it is: me, me and the rest can suffocate. Red traffic lights, zebra crossings, continuous stripes, etc. are only there for decoration and embellishment. Cars are parked halfway or in the middle of the road. Overtaking on the left while everyone is waiting at the red light is the most normal thing in the world. Not to mention the fact that driving with a heavy drink behind your teeth is a normal phenomenon. Just for fun, take a look around you to see what plastic and other rubbish there is along the side of the roads and in nature reserves and then ask yourself whether the Thais are so disciplined. I already know the answer for myself.
And that applies to 65 million Thai? Do you know every Thai person personally?
Ilodt in translation?
It is not from November 1st to November 16th but from January 1st to November 16th. 246 deaths in about 2 weeks would be really bizarre. Nobody noticed anything? Or are we really so used to bizarre death tolls in Thai traffic. 246 deaths is of course a lot.
Below the text from Thaivisa.com and they quote Source: Chiang Mai News
In the 25 districts of Chiang Mai province from January 1st to 16th November 2018 there were 13,051 accidents resulting in 246 deaths and 14,465 injuries.
Sorry William you are right.
January has been canceled for unclear reasons.
Saw an ambulance today in Pattaya with siren and flashing lights on so everyone moved aside to let the ambulance go through but behind the ambulance was a motorbike which I think benefited other road users to clear way for the ambulance sawadee Pimai
Make way for an ambulance? That's new to me!
John, that's a good example of the difficulty for farangs here. We want to understand and explain it and as Dutch people certainly 'improve', in this case about the discipline, but I don't know how long ago you were in Europe, but next time drive around in NL, a complete wild west on the road And then I'm not even talking about parking, you should know that. No, we don't understand the other side of the behavior, but you also don't go back to NL without reason, where EVERYTHING is nicely arranged and all people behave in a disciplined manner. I read something else in Nu.nl!
Toilets. Yes, that has to do with discipline John, because that's how the Thais think it should be and so they apply it everywhere in a disciplined way. Is that also the case in NL?
We have been here for 9 years now and yes, it can be even better, but here in the North it is already much better than before 3 years. There are now public garbage cans everywhere here and they are also used and the garbage collection service, 60% private, works fine here. Costs 200 baht per month.
Accepting what is DIFFERENT and further enjoying what is possible here, even driving against the traffic because no Thai would think of driving someone off the road like the aggressiveness in Europe would 'arrange'! No more than hitting a dog sprawled out in the middle of the road.
regards,