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A strong statement this week, in which we state that the many road deaths in Thailand (62 per day!) are largely our own fault. And we will explain that.
Anyone who looks around in Thailand will not be surprised at the many road casualties. After all, the public road is used as a racetrack. Traffic rules? Never heard of it. Helmet obligation? We don't. Speed limit? Why? Drunk? Oh, riding on my motorbike or in the car is still possible. Playing with your phone while driving? Nice is not it?
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), there were a total of 2018 road deaths in Thailand in 22.491, or 62 per day. In addition, another 450.934 people were injured in traffic accidents that year. That is 1.235 per day. These numbers make Thailand one of the countries with the highest traffic fatalities per capita in the world.
The many road deaths in Thailand is a matter of mentality. By now, almost every Thai has lost someone in the family due to a traffic accident. The most idiotic traffic accidents can be seen on TV every day. So there can be no ignorance.
Of course there is no enforcement by the police, but there is also such a thing as personal responsibility. You don't have to fully depress or loosen the accelerator pedal. You can put on a helmet. You don't have to ignore traffic lights and stop signs, or use your cell phone while driving. Why not a little more respect for the traffic rules and other road users? You don't have to drive aggressively, cut off other road users or take irresponsible risks.
Responsible driving starts with you. Just take your responsibility and behave normally in traffic. That would already save a lot of traffic deaths.
Hence the statement of the week: Thai are themselves to blame for the many road deaths! If you agree or disagree, please tell us why and respond to this statement!
There are always (at least) 2 parties involved in an accident. One of them makes a big mistake, the other unfortunately doesn't have enough room to correct it.
However, the victim is usually the one with the smallest vehicle, and a scooter doesn't have much of a crumple zone.
The fact that both are Thai does not detract from those facts, as a Dutchman you can adhere to the rules and drive carefully defensively, you can just as easily become a statistic when a scooter makes its way across the sidewalk, or you accidentally look left and the traffic comes from the other side.
Incidentally, you paint a picture here that the traffic is life-threatening, but 99% of the time it all goes well, and the traffic flows smoothly. It will be a bit different if you don't adapt to a heavy rain shower.
This is what the WHO says about road safety in Thailand:
According to the WHO, Thailand has one of the highest rates of road deaths per capita in the world. In 2020, the WHO reported that the number of road deaths in Thailand exceeded 22.000, which equates to about 32 road deaths per 100.000 inhabitants.
But luckily it all works out for you...
In addition, I understand that Thailand only includes a road death in its statistics if the person concerned died immediately in the accident.
Yes, the actual number is much higher.
The numbers that the WHO mentions, 22.000 road deaths, are already a correction/addition to those provided by Thailand. They add about 50 percent for those who die during transport and in hospital.
Yes Tina,
I believe so too.
And of that 50%, half is probably a motosai driver, who does not wear a protective helmet.
Because I see them now, despite COVID is passé, still all wearing face masks!
So dead of brain damage, but not of lung disease.
Perhaps a bit of sharp-edging, but I believe that the number of road fatalities is calculated “on arrival” at the hospital. Indeed, cases that later die in hospital as a result of road accident injuries are not counted.
correct. as soon as you die in an ambulance or in the hospital you do not count in the statistics
What I have noticed in the last 3 months is that many Thai people do not know the traffic rules at all, apart from the fact that they also ignore it. Just ask a Thai whether left or right traffic has priority, they don't know. With a speed sign on the expressway on the left side with 90 Km on it, of course it means all 4 lanes, but the Thai replies that it only concerns the left lane and 120 may be driven. Apart from the fact that Thai often ignores it, certainly true and super unwise!!!!, they are completely unaware of what all traffic rules entail, which is also apparent when a novice Thai gets his driver's license and very quickly in his possession has. Driving off with a scooter on a job behind the classroom doesn't help either, I just got both my driver's licenses in Thailand and I think it's great that I have them, but don't ask how simple it was.
More education is also needed for the driving Thai and trying to teach responsibility wouldn't be wrong either.
After driving 7.200 Km this time, I have seen enough on the road and also had to use the emergency stop in situations by inattentive and reckless drivers
True, only Libya is worse in the international ranking of high-risk countries. You can't really blame individual (Thai) road users if they do what they see everyone around them doing. It is the Thai government that must do something about it. People only change their behavior when they have to. When I was young (I am now 67 years old) it was not unusual in Belgium to drive drunk, way too fast and without a seatbelt.
Very gradually our behavior changed, because we had to and because society started to disapprove of things.
Maarten, even if things go well 99% of the time, there can be life-threatening traffic. The dead and injured speak for themselves. That 99% good indicates that despite that it can turn out much worse. I am also still alive after thirty years in Thai traffic and have done my best to judge everything that comes up correctly. But what comes from behind .. you have no control over that.
Traffic education! That is missing at school. Start doing this as soon as a child starts school and assign a grade or a reward. People don't take that time and that's how you breed generation after generation who don't know how to behave in traffic.
In addition, local roads are asphalted and suddenly become a race track. 70-year-old grandmother who takes her cow across the road there is confronted with high speeds without safe transfer points or tunnels. Whether the government doesn't care that slow traffic needs to be protected. Crossings on the ground floor and then those life-threatening U-turns where you can drive straight ahead for a bit to reach the next street. Let me not talk about alcohol and drugs, another reader will do that later.
Solution? Already said: traffic education and start as young as possible.
There are also single-vehicle accidents in Thailand, where no other vehicle is involved: skidding due to excessive speed in a curve, seeing a pothole too late, hitting a bollard, going off the road or a brake failure during a descent.
Maarten.
You're looking at it too rosy. Naive even. You say it works 99% of the time. You try to play down the WHO report and many other reports that are really based on facts.
Try, I say deliberately. Unknowingly you make a huge mistake. Suppose it really goes well in 99% of the cases, then we had thousands of deaths per day. Consider how many million traffic movements per per dan and 1 percent goes dramatically wrong.
Making a popular statement can also turn out to be wrong.
Believe the reports. Traffic in Thailand is dangerous.
Dear Martin,
you write about the following:
“There are always (at least) 2 parties involved in an accident. One of them makes a big mistake, the other unfortunately doesn't have enough room to correct it."
Why always at least 2 people involved? Drivers also often fall asleep with a fatal outcome and that is a one-sided accident. No one else involved.
99% goes right = 1% wrong.
Suppose 20 million journeys per day, then (according to this assumption with the subsequent calculation) it will go wrong 200.000 times. Conclusion: be more accurate with 'statistics'.
Never heard of unilateral accidents??
Scooters do indeed run a great risk, but the behavior of many scooter riders can be criticized, such as wrong-way driving.
A helmet is mandatory, but the vast majority of scooter riders do not wear a helmet.
Face masks are no longer mandatory, but many helmetless scooter riders do wear a face mask. A remarkable contrast!
Why are we, the farang, asked that question?
We as foreigners usually behave properly in traffic. We know the traffic rules, drive assertively and know all too well that a Thai does not care about the highway code.
Is the Thai itself to blame for the many road casualties? Perhaps one should ask that question to the Thai himself. THEIR answer will probably give us a better understanding of why Thailand is the most 'deadly country' on the road. We, the white noses, can only guess at the real cause of this misery. Only the Thai themselves can give a clear answer to what is going on in their heads.
I hold my breath every time there is overtaking in the corner.
If someone comes from the opposite side, you may be able to swerve just before it, but then someone from the opposite side does the same and overtakes………4 cars next to each other in the bend, then you have a disaster!
Buddhism and reincarnation linked to it do not do it well either…
Think so too. Don't wear a helmet, of course, but wear a face mask again.
The biggest reason why many Thais behave like idiots in traffic is a LACK of enforcement.
I read above: “traffic education” … As long as there is no proper control, with appropriate punishment, many will not adjust their behavior.
Abolish the checks and fines in our own country and you will see which behavioral changes will take place. This is exactly the same in Thailand, no enforcement results in idiocy on the track.
Robert_Rayong, it has to start with education, with education. If no one knows the rules, nothing can be enforced. At primary school in NL I already had 'traffic lessons' and knowledge of rules and signs. It is precisely that education that is lacking in Thailand and then they are released on the traffic. That is asking for trouble.
Eric and Robert
here on Phuket is properly enforced, only the FARRANG is kept
often standing at a checkpoint on Chalong
Thai without a helmet, children with 4 people on the motorcycle, the driver is often just able to pee independently, get the motorcycle from mom or dad, phone to the ear or operate a stunt on the steering wheel, etc., etc, etc.
they can just drive on because the farrang yields money because they have to pay cash at the police station 100 meters away
so both of you are right
Dear Erik,
All Thai drivers who have a driver's license are supposed to know the highway code, aren't they? Didn't they all take an exam together? The big problem is that they may know the rules and laws but brush their pants at it.
You're not going to tell me that all scooter drivers don't know that they HAVE to wear a helmet, always and everywhere… or that they shouldn't ride against traffic… or that they have to adjust their speed… or that a scooter is suitable for max. 2 people ... and we can go on like this for a while.
It's just a matter of behavior change. A Thai has little sense of duty and not only in traffic. Bring on those fines, if you hit them financially they might wake up.
Erik,
Where do you think you get the education from? With the parents? In the schools?
Even without knowing the traffic rules, there are some basics that any child with a little common sense should know. And it is precisely that common sense that many of them lack. The parents are often the bad example.
Every day I see very young students racing through the street with their scooter, and usually they are still with 2 or XNUMX people on their racing mobile. As long as it makes a lot of noise and moves fast. And with the smartphone in hand, they no longer pay any attention to traffic. Try to ban that rooster behavior by means of education ... I wish you good luck.
Robert and Roger, education! Train the teachers and make traffic part of the curriculum. Take them to the traffic gardens that exist in Thailand and put them on a bicycle. Appreciate good behavior on the gradebook.
How long does it take before you see results? Twenty-five years? Then you can posthumously pin a ribbon on me because I won't be here that long. Every less death is well deserved. That sounds better to me than continuing to be negative about a mentality that is not actively addressed.
Sitting still has never yielded anything! Don't sit down with the suits either. Do not forget that in Thailand among the dead are also farang. So you also serve your own interests, gentlemen.
Have seen some horrific accidents with scooter motorcyclists myself, and cannot understand the laxity of many of the Thai drivers. But the farang also happily participate in this.
Just yesterday, in Pattaya.
A European boy, apparently a 'Gothic', with enough metal in his nose and ears to match the weight of his exhaust, drove into a traffic police trap and then started a rant against a cop. But hopeless, of course, because he had no ID on him, and the only helmet they had with them (one of those plastic cases that offers the protection of a wet newspaper in the event of a crash) hung idly on the arm of his Thai girlfriend.
Got a nice print, he passed us later. View of a thunderstorm and salient detail: the helmet was still hanging on the friend's arm.
So both the Thai agent and the European driver are not interested in road safety, everything revolves around money and the thought: 'nothing will happen to me'
As long as everyone in this country still considers themselves invulnerable after obtaining a consecrated Buddha amulet, wearing pink holiday goggles, or taking hectoliters of liquor, the number of road deaths will not decrease.
But that's just my opinion.
After almost 30 years of experience on the Thai roads and of course in possession of a Thai driver's license (which is indeed a joke to get), I believe that the Thai government is partly to blame for the many accidents and deaths .
Punishments/fines are not for the Thai, because they have no money anyway, but they are for the wealthy farang.
In an accident, fortunately never had, the farang is usually always found guilty.
If only the farang hadn't come to Thailand, then there wouldn't have been an accident is often the reaction.
By now I have enough experience to estimate what a vehicle, motorbike, car or truck is up to if, for example, the hazard lights are switched on, the brake lights are constantly on or when the road is stopped on the left side of the road with a side road on the right.
All in all, pay attention and estimate what the traffic will do, then you can certainly use the Thai roads reasonably safely if you have enough insight and knowledge.
“In the event of an accident, fortunately never had, the farang is usually always found guilty.
If only the farang hadn't come to Thailand, then there wouldn't have been an accident is often the reaction.”
I've read that nonsense a few times already. That's not right at all! By repeating such statements you indeed give the impression that this is the truth.
A thorough investigation takes place in every serious accident, with or without farang. It is true that people sometimes try to take money from a foreigner, but that you are MOSTLY found GUILTY is purely made up. And especially that last one (of the Farang coming to Thailand) is really hilarious.
John, agree with you. One of those persistent myths.
I was hit by a Thai who turned off and I wanted to go straight. My moped damage, his BMW7 too. Busy intersection and many witnesses. Calling the emergency center (I had additional insurance in addition to the compulsory one). The parties' two insurance people and a police officer determined who was at fault. Had to wait months for my 1.500 baht, but finally paid after pressure from the gentlemen of AA.
Erik,
I appreciate your principles and persistence.
And justice must prevail, but for those 4 decades I would have driven on and made it a pleasant holiday instead of undergoing that red tape.
And maybe that fat BMW driver had pulled his haircut before the police arrived?
Pear,
Maybe also look beyond the end of your nose.
If you have an accident and you are declared guilty, your insurance premium will automatically go UP! And you carry that with you for all the years to come… so your 4 decades… well…
Trying to cheat money has to do with the ignorance of the insurance rules by part of the population.
I experienced it myself last week.
Accident with my car and a moped.
Fortunately, the young lady was slightly hurt.
Went to the police with assistance from the insurance man and after drawing up the documents I could go, but a new appointment was made for a few days later.
A few days later , waiting at the police station , I saw the young lady arrive with a party .
They had a somewhat defiant attitude towards us .
At the police station, she received a price calculation of the costs of the moped.
This document was dismissed by both police and insurance man.
The reason was that it was over the top (4x the price). The document was drawn up by local knowledge rather than an authorized workshop. She was reprimanded by the policeman in our presence.
Then came the wailing; “I lost my job” “and I can't afford the rest, I have no money” and so on and so forth. The whining has brought her nothing , only loss of face . Everything is neatly arranged.
Dear Johan Meulenkamp,
I read a lot of nonsense here.
** If only the farang had not come to Thailand, there would have been no accident ... **
Show me an example where a lawyer defends his client in court with the above argument. Do you believe this yourself now?
One of the things that struck me during my visits to Thailand is that there are few driving schools. In the Netherlands you almost trip over it. So in my humble opinion there is a gap in the market for entrepreneurs. I am also aware that a low income will also be a consideration for not being able or willing to incur the 'expensive' driver's license and training costs. The same certainly applies to the insurance premium.
Dear Ed, it's not just too few driving schools,
I also had a discussion on this blog a few years ago about a Thai woman who was invited to the Netherlands and had not been there for years, it was then claimed that she could get her driving license back without a test?
I've never heard if that worked, in my opinion it doesn't work.
Been in Thailand for many years, seen many accidents.
The best remedy is education at school, parents to ensure that children do not ride mopeds too young, a lot of helmets and alcohol abuse, and then more police checks on drinking while driving and higher fines. Let's just hope that things get better.
Totally agree with the statement.
What else should it be.
The roads are pretty good.
The lighting is often there.
There are signs with maximum speed.
My Thai wife just bought both theory and practice years ago. After that, I had 100 driving lessons in the Netherlands and never got a control of the switch car. In Thailand, one can easily get a temporary driving license which is automatically converted into permanent when no accidents have occurred. The biggest cause of accidents in Thailand seems to me to be the mentality.
Lack of sense of responsibility. Furthermore, the mentality that you can die from anything.
it remains, of course, a very primitive country, and especially in the countryside with very primitive people. I myself have never believed figures published by the Thai government. whether it concerns economic growth or the number of road deaths. The foreigners are more concerned about it than the Thais, I think, who shrug their world champions
There is a lack of training, traffic insight, road infrastructure, traffic discipline and enforcement. The large number of scooters (with no kitchen zone) is also a factor. You can compare it as with us in the 60s. We must indeed be careful with pointing the finger, because 60 years ago it was hardly better with us. I think you can also say that the traffic in Thailand is even higher than with us.
People often drive too fast in an irresponsible way and in addition many do not look carefully and suddenly go from left to right or vice versa.
Drink also makes some invincible it seems, but often it is the last drunken shower.
Ghost drivers, suddenly entering the road, misjudging the speed of oncoming traffic at the U turn.
There are still some things to mention such as aggressive behavior, first me because I'm in a hurry.
Especially the pick ups that are dangerous, the drivers think they are safe in such a car.
In my opinion, one of the biggest problems is alcohol
and drug use among both drivers and law enforcement officers !
I am convinced if an alcohol check, breathalyzer would take place
find and you refuse and the law enforcement officer blows in your place , your 90%
chance of being drunk.
And don't forget that many don't have a driver's license!
Nice example. My own wife did her test at the age of 47 after my insistence,
and passed with great distinction.55555
I myself was present at the car practical test, group of 10, the youngest around 30 years old
oldest + 70 !
Only 1 person out of 10 managed to get a single cone out of 10 on it
Knocked down from set course, hit the champion of the group 6 pieces.
Everyone passed, can't believe it! What also struck me was that half of the group
came to test with your own car without guidance!
This Is Thailand 55555
In my area I already know about ten (Dutch!) who take a drink in the car or on the motorcycle and participate in traffic. on the motorcycle, often without a helmet, driving too fast. In short, completely adapted to the Thai. Also with consequences, death or injury. Everyone has their own 'it can't happen to me mentality'. The suckers. In my opinion, apart from the personal responsibility of not drinking and wearing a helmet, it can be noted: the training for a driver's license is very minimal (I'm not talking about those who chug around without a driver's license (and often without insurance). That's it the pinch, regarding the government here. Start with that, and more control without corruption. Wouldn't that be a good start. And the suckers among the Dutch who go on a motorcycle or in the car with a sip, pfffff……. .dumbos!
Agree with the statement and in addition: debt at different levels:
– behavior of road users
– drinking/drugs and driving
- insufficient knowledge
– insufficient skills (see getting the driver's license)
– insufficient enforcement with the right penalties
– corruption of the traffic police
– bad roads and insufficient maintenance
– poor reporting of dangerous traffic situations (e.g. during roadworks)
– poor road lighting
– barely segregated road traffic
and maybe a few more things I'm forgetting.
And then there are the punishments that are handed out, in addition to the class justice
But everything starts with the (grand)parents who raise their 10-year-old (grand)children without motivation and let them get the whiskey for dad or grandpa on their moped
There is a saying; erasing poverty through education, but so does understanding the why of legislation on all sorts of things…
The government itself there is also not very wise.
In the context of "safety", my wife told me, the 4137 is being made considerably wider. From a 2 lane road at first, it will now become a 4 or even 6 lane road. Mi that is only a capacity issue and not security. They want the road to be able to handle more for the future? However, it is simply at the expense of the suggested safety.
The Thai usually have their house pretty close to the road. And now the road comes right past their doors. You step outside and you are almost right on the main road.
Why safety?
I also don't think the speeds will drop, actually increase more. It will be a beautiful race track I think when finished.
In the center there, there is almost no space and there are also traffic lights, so that the traffic there is consistent and traffic jams will form. Haven't really seen what they're going to do there yet. A strange idea from the government.
The Thai say in design? Safety? No way Jose. You only move if you don't agree.
My wife's house is down from the road, but they have also raised the road there. The first used entrance, exit is therefore completely unusable.
To get to the top now, you have to do quite a bit on the 2nd entrance, exit, which she has. No paved connection has been made. It is quite steep and when you drive up you have to see if you can go straight onto the road and then only go in one direction, turn left. It's a complete crime. Her sister has a similar event.
I think the slope is about 45 degrees, especially in the last part. You launch yourself onto the road, provided the wheels don't spin first because of used loose rock material. Sure enough, I still succeeded even in wet weather. However, under Dutch curses.
Already told the woman to complain to the authorities, but she doesn't, then she dismisses it.
Also said to organize with all other residents there because of the increase in insecurity.
Well, my wife can hear me, but listen?
In her work she can be quite assertive, she just as easily speaks for 50 lectures in a seminar , but with this? then she suddenly doubts. I'll keep trying to get her there. I don't speak Thai, so can't do anything else. Just try to motivate her, to respond.
the book “Remy, alone in the world” has been read by many Thais AND they also believe that they are the only road user.
This means that almost all traffic signs, zebra crossings, etc. are only applied as road decoration.
So you don't have to take that into account at all. Add to that the fact that at traffic lights orange means: "accelerate" and red light is seen as a challenge.
Driving with alcohol behind your teeth "must be possible" and driving licenses for mopeds (read: motorcycles, because usually above 100 CC) are completely useless rules. And a decent helmet is only bad for your model hair.
.
No. That's not so. it is a bit more complicated and has everything to do with so-called environmental psychology.
In the Netherlands, public space belongs to everyone, to us together, so we have so-called spatial planning, laws and regulations for this, and also budgets. Together with the government, we take care of the public space and so we are concerned (also at a local level) about roads, speed bumps, green areas, bicycle paths and zebras. They are election items.
In Thailand (just like in the USA by the way) the public space is a jungle where the law of the strongest applies: the biggest car, the fastest moped, the Thai with the best networks and power. Spatial planning: never heard of it, thinking about the location of new residential towers in Bangkok due to traffic congestion, number of parking spaces, greenery, exits, etc.: never heard of it. Is there 1 political party in Thailand that is concerned about the environment, the number of diesel cars, the burning of crops. Is it in an election program for May 7?
There are some people under the assumption that a driver's license is issued to a Thai after successfully passing a driving test. The assumption is then that it is a similar exam as we know in the Netherlands. But that's an idea fixe. A Thai driving test is not taken to test whether there is sufficient traffic insight and whether the examinee has acquired m/f vehicle control. None of that. Only vehicle agility is taken into account.
Furthermore: there are driving schools. Costs around 4 to 5 thousand baht. Duration of the course approximately 10 hours. Shorter is also possible: to be done in one day if desired. It is taught how to drive from a to b without damage. Even if traffic from the right or left has priority, if there is still some space, take it. Taking up space applies to all traffic situations. But if you come across a larger or more expensive car / pickup / supercar, you hold back.
Finally: the Thai does not dwell on what happens to others, cannot be learned from experience or empiricism, has no solidarity and certainly no collective (shaking) consciousness. So a Thai, drunk, crawls on his moped because he wants to go home.
Dear Bloggers,
What strikes me most about the discussion is that many of us apparently have the solution to the many road deaths in our hands.
I always ask myself the question if we are all holier than the pope? How many of you are exemplary drivers? How many of you have never had a speeding ticket? How many of you have never had an accident (in which you were at fault)?
We've all been young, we've had a tendency to act a bit tough, this is human nature. To stand in line here with a solution I think is a bit out of place, knowing that there is no ready-made answer.
Have you ever seen how many farangs drink the necessary alcohol every night in the bars in Pattaya or Phuket? Do they all have a private driver to get home safely? I'm afraid not. But to point the finger at a Thai about their behavior, we are happy to participate.
I know that traffic in this beautiful country is UNsafe. I therefore adjust MY behavior by moving defensively. I know all too well that I cannot and will not change the Thai mentality… and neither can you…
I've been involved in an accident twice in 16 years.
Do you know how?
As a passenger in a mini-van on my way to work.
I have done research in the past (which can be found here) and also published here about the road deaths during the black days. And the backgrounds and the reasons why that is not so bad in other countries. Surely you can write that Thailand is a dangerous country when it comes to traffic? And that there are many more Thai road users than foreign ones?
And: it is certainly not just about the behavior of road users. In my opinion, there is just as much enforcement in Thailand as in the Netherlands, but clearly DIFFERENT.
75 foreigners have already died in traffic, this year John.
So more than one a day.
The Thai really know how to drive properly and most of them also have a reasonable understanding of the rules.
The often youthful mentality and egocentric behavior of many leads to accidents.
Inferiority complex is the extra sauce.
Most drivers respond in emergency situations by honking and driving even faster instead of braking.
Remember death is often cheaper than a long hospital stay.
Motorcycles or mopeds, it has to be harder and harder, preferably doing two things at once because yes, that Buddha pendant will protect you.
Or that plaster on your ceiling in your car.
I regularly encounter ghost drivers just look the other way and accelerate.
Some call it no fear.
I have another name for that.
William Korat,
Take a closer look at your 3rd sentence.
And in the sentences after that you contradict yourself!
The Thai have no awareness of the traffic rules because they have completely forgotten or do not know how to interpret them after 1 week of driving lessons, including driving license.
Yes, I know because my Chaantje had her car driver's license after 1 week, but luckily she doesn't dare to get behind the wheel.
Dear PEER
I indicate that many Thai really know it but have a complete shit about it.
Maybe I should have put the word BUT between the third sentence and the rest of the story.
Soly
How can you expect to drive “normally” again? Motorists in Thailand think they can drive if they can distinguish the accelerator from the brake and get the car moving.
You can see from some actions in traffic that many people hardly know, if at all, how to really handle their car.
Have you ever seen how a U-turn is made? In Hua Hin there are lanes at almost every U-turn. Almost everyone starts to steer too early and make a wide turn and instead of merging, they stand waiting for the oncoming traffic to get far enough away to make a turn with ease, putting them on the other side of the street or maybe in the middle. Nobody uses the slip lane (even though it is shielded by concrete blocks to prevent oncoming traffic, which often simply ignores stripes on the road, from driving over it).
And then pull up at an intersection. They let their car get going very slowly, only to continue driving like a madman a few minutes later.
Many cars (especially trucks) are at an intersection and have their warning lights on. Why?
Or they are at a crossroads and have to go straight ahead. To indicate where they want to go, they also turn on the warning lights. As a result, people who see them from the left think he wants to go left and those who see him from the right expect him to want to go right (probably many Thais don't even pay attention to that, but we Westerners do).
At roundabouts hardly anyone knows who has right of way.
Someone is coming up the road. How many times has it happened that behind me everything was clear, but no, the driver had to go out in front of me, forced me to slow down, when it would not have been necessary at all if he had waited a few more seconds or more looked at his nose was long (and it is very short in Thailand).
What they are great at is parking the car backwards in a shopping mall. Many Thais can do that very well.
But why is all that? Why do they drive too fast and can't adapt? Because they simply never learned.
A driving school (I wanted my wife, despite having a driver's license a long time ago, to take lessons) takes two weeks. What will you learn in those two weeks? In any case, more than what the average Thai knows during a driving test.
I can still remember when I got driving lessons. When merging you first had to get up to speed. Accelerate, the driving instructor called to me when I hesitated. They have no such incentives here.
Demanding that the Thais abide by the rules is well meant, but they also have to really learn the rules first. And that's really what's wrong here. Nobody knows the rules, but THINKS they know them. And the Thais learn a lot among themselves and wrongly.
I don't claim to be a good driver. I now also drive on the right lane with 90 or 100 and do not swerve to the left lane. Then whoever wants to drive even faster has to overtake me from the left. I have no problem with that. I myself drive too fast. But… I am not a meter away from my predecessor. I don't ignore stripes on the road… but sometimes you are forced to, because everyone suddenly starts driving wrong… then you have to adapt.
Finally, I want to say something else…. despite knowing so few rules, most Thais drive carefully. Maybe even more careful than me. Occasionally you have razers, but they are also in the minority, they just stand out.
For almost thirty years I have driven a distance of 260 km straight to work eight times a month (Landgraaf to Frankfurt airport) and what I have experienced there, I can only say that I much prefer driving in Thailand. When you wanted to overtake someone with 140, you had to do it quickly, because within seconds you had someone who almost swept you off the road with his 200 or 250 km per hour. And: never give priority, but take priority. Vigorous aggressive behavior, chases that I personally experienced were the order of the day.
I have never experienced that in Thailand.
The fact that there are so many deaths is really regrettable. Recently an English neighbor of mine was hit by a truck on his moped…. sad. Even one of our cats was run over by a speeding car in front of our house. And that in a street where no more than 30 cars drive per day.
Pure Kafka:
A few months ago we came back from a trip to Chiang Mai, my brother-in-law was on duty.
He has quite a heavy foot, constantly drove 130-140 with his big Fortuner and sure enough he won. A little later police control. Speeding fine, PAYABLE 500THB.
Fine paid, continued the journey at an average speed of again 130-140 km/h.
I asked my wife: "He is not learned now after that fine"?
Answer: He paid 500 THB anyway so he is safe for the rest of the day.
Apparently if you pay a fine it is valid for a whole day!!! Welcome to Thailand 😉
For many Thais, 500 Baht is peanuts. The fact is that Thailand has gone from nothing to everything in a good 30 years and this in many areas.
The country has evolved rapidly, but society has stuck in many areas. The same is true with traffic. The parents of most people who are now in expensive fast SUVs and 4×4 only had an old moped at best.
When I came to a crossroads in the interior 30 years ago, there were 25 scooters and behind them 3 cars. Now there are 25 cars and behind them 3 scooters.
You should take a look at R4 Racing Channel on facebook, there is only racing on the Thai roads that it is a pleasure, including the accidents.
You will only get involved in one of those accidents like farang.
most tourists and pensioners know how dangerous it can be on the road.
A relatively small group of the aforementioned people also regularly flout the rules.
Without a helmet, without the correct or no driver's license at all, and participating in traffic intoxicated.
If something happens to them, in some cases, the insurance will not pay out.
The why is easy to fill in.
They end up in the hospital and the bill cannot be paid.
The result is: a fundraising campaign through crowdfunding.
How well prepared are you to go on vacation.
Many Thais can drive very well when it comes to a straight road, but as soon as it gets even slightly technical, things regularly go wrong.
Merge in and out, change lanes, etc., often without indicating direction. phone while driving,
drink and drugs also often cause major problems. Participating in traffic without insurance, school-going children who go to school with friends on a motorbike.
Not in possession of a driver's license, insurance and helmet, just to give an example.
The police hardly act against this.
Parents who pick up kids from school and are parked three deep on a highway: that no accidents have happened there yet is still a mystery to me.