Fewer road deaths during Songkran
(Wanna Thongpao / Shutterstock.com)
Now the Songkran holiday is almost over, we can now take stock of the traditional ones 7 dangerous days on the roads of Thailand. And that balance seems positive.
On average, there have been approximately 10% fewer collisions, deaths and injuries (as of April 16).
In five provinces there are not even any road deaths reported, it concerns the provinces: Trang, Phangnga, Mae Hong Son, Sukhothai and Ang Thong.
Exceeding the speed limit and driving under the influence are the two main causes of accidents, especially motorcycles are found to be involved in accidents.
Nakhon Ratchasima and Udon Thani had the highest number of deaths with 15 people each and Chiang Mai had the most accidents (119).
The government has set up about 2.000 checkpoints along the roads with more than 65.000 officials and volunteers in order to limit traffic violations and reduce the number of accidents during the festivities.
Despite the fall in the number of deaths compared to last year, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is not satisfied with the statistics. He wants to evaluate first, but is in favor of heavier penalties for traffic offenders.
Source: Bangkok Post
About this blogger
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Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
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I am anything but a Thailand basher, on the contrary, I live, work, live here with great pleasure.
I am very annoyed by the good news show from the government and TAT (Tourist Authority Thailand).
I could have already predicted at the beginning of April that the figures regarding road deaths during Songkran would be encouraging. Many accidents involving foreign tourists, whether fatal or not. This calls for an offensive with a lot of good news to send a signal abroad that the problem is under control, that people can safely participate in traffic in Thailand again, etc.
If a Chinese is robbed or assaulted, you don't have to wait long before there are 1 or 2 cases of honest taxi drivers who have found hundreds of thousands of THB in their taxi and have moved heaven and earth to return it to the rightful owner.
Until active law enforcement is introduced, the number of victims will only increase. Not illogical if the number of cars on the roads rises enormously every year, the level of driving skills remains questionably low and the risk of accidents just rises nicely every year.
Don't get me wrong: I don't see much need to change and I'm anything but in favor of stricter law enforcement. That automatically makes life a bit more expensive, because we all sometimes ride our mopeds without a helmet and we also sometimes drive the Thai style car if that suits us better.
What I mean is: that good news show is not taken seriously by the Thai even in Thailand, and the foreigners (if not living in Thailand) certainly not.
I believe the risks here are greater than anywhere else, but if you stay alert and realize that you are vulnerable all the way through 360 degrees and therefore have to monitor 360 degrees all the time, you reduce the risk of accidents to a pre-eminent level. acceptable level
In short: watch out and take care of yourself, someone else probably won't...
I've seen several checkpoints. I do wonder what they actually do. I see them sitting there but that's all, no control or anything
Unfortunately, as long as the candidate road users do not follow solid lessons in order to know the traffic regulations and the driving skills, in other words to get a driver's license, it is hopeless. Most drivers don't even know the traffic regulations. At the schools, the traffic problems are not discussed at all, let alone teach the children some information about them from an early age. I give a rather harrowing example, my stepdaughter a graduated university student, who drove to the Univ with a moped for years: she sat next to me in the car, I came to a roundabout and asked her: who has priority here? The answer with a surprised look…. hey… I don't know? And then I won't even talk about parents who let snot noses ride their moped. Where is the sense of responsibility???? What in case of an accident with injuries or worse ????
When I point it out to them, they see it.
Last night we had enough examples again.
Moped without light. Truck parked on that flight/moped lane unlit.
Driving against traffic in the dark without lights.
It goes on and on.
I've been driving through Thailand for a few years now and see checkpoints everywhere. But not seen a single post during the last songkran period.
And yesterday, the 20th, I was stopped 4 times again.