The government has taken various measures this year to reduce the number of road casualties. Strangely enough, some measures have already been reversed under pressure from public opinion.
Bangkok Post therefore does not expect much from it. Over the past 364 years, governments have failed to improve the situation. Last year, the number of road deaths in the 'seven dangeous days' even increased from 442 to XNUMX.
According to editor Suranand of Bangkok Post, this is due to the well-known 'mai pen rai' attitude of the Thai. Another problem is enforcement. Thai laws are not or poorly enforced and that does not only apply to the traffic rules. The government in particular fails to comply with the rules.
Yesterday, the new traffic rules, such as the obligation to wear a seat belt, were checked, but warnings sufficed.
Deputy Secretary of the Military Government Pisit said that the police and other authorities should be lenient with some violations during the Songkran holiday.
Source: Bangkok Post
About this blogger
-
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.
Read the latest articles here
HealthJanuary 17 2025Thailand struggles with childhood obesity
EconomyJanuary 15 2025Thailand to reach highest investment level in a decade in 2024
ResearchJanuary 15 2025Research shows: Dutch people prefer to save on health than on vacation
News from ThailandJanuary 15 2025Thailand makes visa program more attractive for international experts
As long as Thailand's finest sit on their laziness on their roadblocks, nothing will change. The work of traffic police also includes patrolling the roads. Apparently they still haven't figured that out. Roadblocks are nonsense, but of course bring lead in the bowl hahaha
Last night, 12.00 pm and 02.00 am, passed several checkpoints on the way to Korat and drove into a "trap" on 2, check driver's license and wear seatbelts. Many pick-ups along the side
First day already 33 dead and 420 injured!
Experience shows that the Thai cannot arrange it. Clear new rules that are strictly monitored. With hefty fines as a consequence. And not during Songkran but during the whole year. The government is too weak, the police don't do their job and the Thai don't care about anything and think it's normal to get behind the wheel drunk and to behave like a crazy madman with or without alcohol in traffic. This problem could be reduced to normal proportions with a good policy and extensive information, for example via TV. Why that doesn't work year after year is the big question for me.
NO, clear answer, as long as the Thai people are still proud of how much alcohol they can drink and then also drive a few hundred kilometers, the answer and the number of deaths will be guaranteed to remain that way. They are also taught from a young age to drink alcohol and the more the higher your status. Had a visit from my wife's no sister with her 16-year-old daughter.
During her visit of a few hours, the daughter managed to shake in 7 large bottles of Chang, oh boy, how many times did we hear how wonderful her daughter was because she handled the alcohol so well and then with mother on the back of the drive the moped home.
Do 4 men come home from the night shift and immediately outside in the gazebo on the Hong Tong, when they had to go back into the night shift in the evening, they had exactly a whole box with 12 large bottles of Hong Tong empty. Back in the car and then to work? ? If you understand, then maybe I do too, but if these kinds of people came to my gate to work, I would send them back immediately. We were raised on Mother's breast and later on the bottle with milk, here to the 3 at the chest and then as fast as possible to the Law Kaw .
As long as alcohol is a prestige issue for both men and women, the number of victims will not decrease, so mopping with the tap open.
I have driven past hundreds of police checkpoints during the song crane in recent years and have never had to stop. Everyone was (coincidentally) just in deep rest
It's all gone way too fast. Many people without any education, training or insight… who 20 years ago still drove a scooter are now behind the wheel of a powerful 4×4
The general level and the economic evolution have not grown uniformly.
A few years ago I drove with a Thai acquaintance in the evening from Bangkok to Chaiyaphum. The racing party already starts in Bangkok. The driver tears across the road from left to right and that at full throttle. In the meantime, one bottle of Chang after the other is drunk and the driver calmly participates. Soon the first accidents took place. A bus on its side and around it a few of those “PCtractors” in destruction. But it made little or no impression on the other road users. Not only was diesel fueled at a gas station, but the beer supply was also replenished. Fortunately, all arrived unscathed in Chaiyaphum and there the party continued on the happy ending. I got my Thai driver's license two years ago. First with my Thai wife to a local police station to have some information about my status in Thailand put on an official document. At most four lines that took the agent in question a few hours. My passport was flipped through twenty times, but in the end I received a signed document. Then another “medical examination” which really means nothing. I was asked if I felt healthy. After an affirmative answer, I had to take a few more deep breaths and after paying THB40, I received the medical document. The next day my wife traveled to Phong Tong to take an “exam”. Showed my Dutch driver's license and the party could begin. I had to look into a device with red, orange and green light that went on at different times on the left or right and I had to report the color. Then a "brake test". I had to press the brake pedal at a red light. Then I got two strings pressed into my hand, the reason for which I did not understand, but by looking at fellow candidates I also managed to score positively there and I passed. After paying a few hundred Baht and having a photo taken, my Thai driver's license was made and handed over for one year. Have it extended to 5 years the following year. My wife "got" her driver's license in much the same way. She could hardly drive a car, but had bought a new car on expiry. With her behind the wheel of such a large PCHoofdstraat tractor, I was really terrified. When parking at our house I had explained to her the night before how to steer when leaving the parking lot, but unfortunately the explanation had not arrived because she did exactly the opposite of what I had told her, with the result that she broke the wall of our house crashed. Normally you stop in such a situation, but apparently the damage to her car and the house was not yet sufficient and she started to steer even sharper towards the wall and give full throttle so that the car was damaged considerably and the wall had received a blow . Her driving has improved, but I still often have to take the wheel. Especially when it gets mountainous then I take over the wheel. The number of (fatal) accidents does not surprise me at all. Yesterday was indeed much more checked. I was even stopped as a walker and asked where I was from, where I was staying in Thailand and where I was going.
It's something in traffic, that's clear and it won't change anytime soon, sense of responsibility is largely lacking.
What I don't understand is that people still continue to be transported to the end of the journey, even if it is far from the starting point, even if the driver is driving like crazy and drinking alcohol. That combination is literally deadly.
Yes, sometimes the family is still proud that the driver can still drive so well even though he has been drinking.
Hope for the passengers of these carriers that they get home in one piece.
Nico B