On the death of a schoolboy
Earlier this week, a road accident in Sriracha killed a 14-year-old student on his way home from school.
A lorry made a clumsy maneuver in a bend, the student on his moped (too young, no driver's license, no crash helmet) fell as a result, got under the lorry and was crushed by the rear wheels.
Traffic in Thailand
A case out of thousands, you could say, it didn't even make it to the local press. I also know that there are many thousands of road casualties in Thailand every year. I also know that Thailand has the dubious reputation of having the highest number of road deaths in the world. I also know that a large proportion of the victims are young, without a driver's license and without a crash helmet. You also don't have to tell me that the cause of all that misery can be found in a bad traffic mentality of the Thai people and the poor education in this area.
School boyfriend
However, this case is different for me, my wife and son. The victim is a school friend and classmate of our son. I knew him fairly well, because last year he came to our house very regularly on weekends to mainly work on the computer with our son (what else?). Sometimes there were two classmates who also stayed overnight. My wife provided good food and drinks, I occasionally took them to a restaurant or beach.
Accident
And then suddenly he's gone. An ordinary, innocent schoolboy, a starting adolescent, who did not (yet) smoke or drink alcohol. There was no interest in girls either. I had never before been confronted with accidents involving people I know. Now that it happens so "close" it grabs you. Involuntarily you think it could have been our son, although luckily he doesn't drive a moped yet.
Future
There was great interest in Buddhist rituals prior to cremation. Dozens, perhaps more than 100 students from his school were present, deeply impressed. You can hope that lessons will be learned and I will commend the school if space is immediately made available in the teaching programs for traffic education. You can't start too early!
I feel for you I am 65 years old and last year I also experienced an accident car drove backwards onto the road and had not seen me so head-on against the car.
Extremely sad.
But I do have a critical note, Gringo.
It is too easy to blame everything on bad traffic mentality and bad education.
There are many more factors that play an important role: The large percentage of – vulnerable – two-wheelers, the poor infrastructure (no separate cycle paths, sidewalks and the like, the U-turns and the lack of sufficient grade-separated intersections), the poor maintenance of the roads and the means of transport and so on.
It is not the case that tackling one of those causes will drastically reduce the number of road deaths and injuries. All kinds of things have to happen for that and that doesn't happen from one day to the next. Don't forget that road safety has been a spearhead policy in the Netherlands for more than 40 years. With success, incidentally, the number of deaths has fallen from 3000 to 600 per year.
In the Netherlands, the point at which the costs/disadvantages/irritation of even more measures no longer outweigh the lower number of deaths has more or less been reached.
Not yet in Thailand, that's for sure.
As a long-term road user in Thailand, I can name about 10 measures that would drastically reduce the number of road deaths in Thailand, if those measures were also strictly observed and monitored.
But this story is not about the traffic in Thailand, it is about a single victim. What do you think, should I translate your story and give it to this boy's parents? Do you think it will offer any consolation? No? Well, neither do I!
No, don't. Such an insensitive reaction is of no use to them.
But the school will certainly not use this (yet another?) drama to spontaneously put extra traffic education on the program.
Moderator: Please do not chat.
Well Grinco, a tragic traffic accident in which people are injured or even killed, within your own family or circle of acquaintances is always a hard blow.
But I also sometimes think that people here in Thailand "unconsciously" look it up.
Near me in Lak-Si (Bangkok) is a very busy side street called “Soi 14”
Originally made as 2 x 2 lanes with a sidewalk on both sides.
But as with many busy streets, a handcart and later a permanent eatery is made on the sidewalk. Totally clandestine of course. But yes, the customers also want to sit down to eat and so only put a few tables and chairs in the first lane.
You already understand, the very busy side street has now been reduced to 2 x 1 lane without sidewalk and the motorcycle side "Boy's" also have to quickly pick up a new customer at Big-C and therefore drive left and right of cars and everyone who walks there just "almost" knocked over. I'm really told that "almost" every day goes well, although the asphalt is littered with police signs from a spray can.
But the government????? at least never seen before. So a second row of tables can still be added.
Such is Thailand. They come up with strict rules for Motorzij Boys, but after life it's okay. The "old" cardigans are cheerfully resold, even more Motorzij Boys.
Good luck Grinco
Greetings Nico
@Gringo
We (at least I) sympathize with you, I understand your frustration about this whole thing, and find Frans' reaction special.
Of course we have built up a completely different policy here in the last 10 years, but Thailand is 13x the size of the Netherlands, and has a much different traffic structure with many unpaved roads and the police who look for a piece of paper with a head on it with 2 or 3 zeros run a custom policy.
But the biggest problem is the people themselves, the ability to anticipate in traffic of a Thai is something different people, I have experienced this myself with the many kilometers I have covered in Thailand by moped and car.
Here those accidents are incomprehensible, but there it is often said/thought “it is the Buddha's will” and the average person there thinks “I am on my way alone” I often have the idea.
Here in NL lately, traffic bastards often play a role, I think.
Very sad Gringo.
Behind a report of a student who died by accident, a face suddenly appears, a person you know, with whom your son, you and your wife had contact and then it is sensitively very different, a drama.
What about the suffering of parents, family, friends and acquaintances, there is a drama behind every accident.
Endorse what Fransamsterdam writes regarding. the high death toll in Thailand, there is certainly still a lot to do here to reduce that number, we can hope for the future that this happens as soon as possible.
We wish you, your wife and your son strength with the difficult feelings due to this death, the same for the parents, family and friends.
Nico B
Here this victim of a statistic is made into a human being. And then you suddenly realize that instead of a few thousand deaths, a person dies a thousand times.
Level
I think it will help somewhat if good driving lessons are given
The theory is already a starting point of the 50 questions 45 good
But if you get this and drive well on a practice field and 2 to 3 difficult operations
park between 2 pawns
park between 2 pawns behind
Couple of laps
Then you have the driver's license
Never driven on a road.
Also had a lesson here at a driving school
asked while driving
How hard you may Up to you
When lights on up to you
Don't buckle up
Priority up to you
Had to refuel the driving school didn't know how to open it
So no wonder there are casualties
We need a Thai driver's license for both motorcycle and car
Better control at the rental companies whether they have a driver's license
They do ask for this with the car, but with a motorbick
And even more control on helmets
Then don't go to the police station without a helmet to pay the fine
It's Thailand
I've been driving around here for a number of years and I often wonder how they think here.
Last time I ride my motorbike and I have to turn right.
I know they drive like crazy so I sort of stop for .
Being driven from behind was almost a fight because I should have just kept driving.
I didn't pay anything he could drop dead.
But something very simple they buy a driver's license here in phuket.
My neighbor is a motorbike taxi and pays 500 bath extra for a driver's license.
I want to send my girlfriend to a driving school to learn how to ride a motorbike.
Now I have tried to teach her something myself, but she is much too insecure for me.
She wants the most I don't like it but yes women hey.
So I thought I'd send them to a driving school so they can say something about it or learn to drive.
What do you think, you can get a motorcycle license.
Only there is no driving school in phuket where you can learn to ride a motorbike.
Well for a car.
Just explain this to me.
You also have to learn to be safe in traffic, besides that you just have to use your brain.
There have been 5 deaths this week in Patong and Kamala alone.
Almost always there is a concrete truck or a heavy truck in the game.
There is still a lot of water to flow through the Rhine before anything can be learned from this.
I personally think that one never learns. I myself have been riding motorcycles all my life from those fat boys with an H and a D in the spelling.
Then you drive nice and quietly behind a car at a distance that is too small to go between them but is large enough to brake. And then someone else MUST be in between, whether you are pushed off the road or not. But well this aside.
So every day I am overtaken by boys of 12, 13 or 14 years old on rickety mopeds with thin tires, of course NO helmet on with an estimated 100 kilometers per hour.
As long as the government does not limit this and does not have a helmet tested for effectiveness (so no cardboard helmets), many will leave us prematurely. Nothing can be done about it.
But I do worry.
About 5 years ago in April , two days before the start of Songkran .
My spouse 's sister came to my door crying , I thought when my wife 's old man ( father - in - law ) had passed away .
Picked up my wife and both started to cry even louder .
What happened .
My wife's brother's daughter, around 14 years old, had died in an accident an hour earlier.
So quickly with my pickup and the rest of the family to the hospital in Sanpatong .
When we got there, another brother showed me the dead body in a room of the hospital.
He quickly lifted the sheet and you could see a broken chest and the profile of the band was still visible on the sheet.
She was on her way in the morning with two friends, all sitting on a moped, to a weekly large Saturday market between Sanpatong and Hangdong.
The accident happened , right next to a temple , somewhere on a back road with an almost right - angle bend .
On the way came an open truck loaded with a large excavator.
According to the two girlfriends, he took up the entire road.
My spouse's niece was the last on the back of the moped and was thrown off and came under the front wheel of the truck.
A family drama , but then came another drama .
The driver of the truck owned an earthmoving company.
First refused to pay more than 30000 bath .
A lawyer was hired, but not much was achieved, but the sum ended up at 100000 baths.
During an investigation of the truck I was with , a so - called police - hired mechanic came , who checked whether all lamps , etc. are on , with a measuring tape the measurements of the truck were taken and that was it .
During a meeting at the police station , the brother of the victim ( katoy ) had brought along a group of friends , all katoys .
We all shouted loudly against corruption .
Two weeks ago my spouse found out that the owner of the company had caused another accident.
A boy of around 10 years old was now the victim, fortunately only a broken leg injury.
The boy had gone to a temple party with some friends and came into contact with the car of the same driver, who had been drinking alcohol.
My wife and I then visited the young victim at home.
And again it was the same story,
The perpetrator never visited the sick, but the boy (10 years old) was still checked for alcohol after the accident, his father said.
Not the drunken perpetrator.
He went free again.
Corruption at its peak.
In all the years that I have lived here , I have seen many people come home dead from traffic accidents .
Young and old , perpetrator or victim .
And they didn't make the news either, yes, that's how it goes here once.
What I often see is that if another farang tourist dies, for whatever reason, this is news again.
But whoever has the money and the status in Thailand goes free , take it from me .
Wishing everyone strength.
Jan Beute
Sad story, Gringo! Understand your feelings and sympathize with you!
It's a sad situation here in Thailand with the traffic. I prefer to ride my motorcycle and I'm very busy watching and the Thais don't do that? And if the Thais see you then they don't care, many don't even know what the lines and traffic signs are . Here it is the largest goes first. I would like to see traffic lessons given at school, I have already suggested it to the police, good idea Simon. But it is not implemented. Too bad, but unfortunately.
I have stopped driving because of what is happening in traffic here and have let my driver's license expire, I am someone who takes quite a bit of risk in traffic by nature and that is absolutely not allowed here, my wife drives fine and we will let that Like this.