Japan praises Thailand for improvements in road safety - and that includes the police

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, freedomnow said:

They should actually bring in the Japanese or ze Germans to consult and set-up a separate roads agency that includes fines outwith those slobs = traffic police.

For all their money grubbing in govt. departments they could make a boatload off of unmarked cars with HD cams recording no signaling by cars with 1000 Baht fines by mail.

It's a pet hate this sheer laziness/selfishness by Thais who just cut lanes with no signal. It is endemic on the roads.

But, but, you don't understand, each one of them is the most important driver any time any where.

[Chippy151]

I have noticed one improvement.

There doesn't seem to be nearly as many crazy, psychotic, speeding minivan drivers as there were a few years ago.

[Prairieboy]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

These included "Optical Speed Bars" (speed restriction measures)

I see a number of these on highway #212 paired with 50 kph speed limit signs - as with all other 'safety' measures these have no effect on the traffic speed.  They could have saved the paint!

[Lupatria]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Japanese counterparts had praised Thailand for its efforts to improve road safety.

Make it mandatory for Japanese journalists to do at least a little research before they get to their keyboards to write BS!

[wilcopops]

Japans road safety history included road facility measures, regulations and law enforcement, education, vehicle safety standards, and emergency medical care. This is in common with all "developed" countries - actually they still have rather high figures but they suffered the same hyper-rapid increases in car/vehicle ownership that Thailand is going trough so it is hoped that where Thailand ignores the advice of the West, they might take on board some "tips" from the Japanese.

however this "pat on the back" from Japan is a bit mystifying and one wonders whether it has some ulterior motives - even if only to START a road safety program in Thailand.

 

"To be fair the Thais build high class new roads,: - be under no illusion about the majority of new roads in Thailand, they are poorly conceived and designed death traps that can only exacerbate the death tolls in the country.

 

[xtrnuno41]

SO they would do some roads close to bk , and forget about all other roads.

Even if they are working on the road, they dont put up safety warnings about working on the road. In daytime you can see, but when its dark, absolutely nothing, you will be surprised. Lining on the road, when to apply? It is never finished. Lantern post they are standing there new, but not working, when to finish?

Thais dont get fines, they can do what ever they like in driving. If i was a policeman overthere, i could fine so many, my fine book as thick as a bible would be filled every day. I dont like fines, but sure dont like the way Thai are in trafic. Probably as im raised in Europe where everything is more organized and with big fat fines. 

 

[connda]

This article appeared in the The Onion and this is a reprint - correct?

[Magenta408]

There have never been so many deaths and accidents on the road than this year during the recent holidays. Perhaps the Japanese are truly uninformed?

[Odysseus123]

Ah,the Japanese..they will walk in next time..

 

Oh wait,they walked in last time..

[Oziex1]

4 hours ago, Chippy151 said:

I have noticed one improvement.

There doesn't seem to be nearly as many crazy, psychotic, speeding minivan drivers as there were a few years ago.

Natural selection at work?

[ocddave]

You've got be kidding me, "Thailand" and "Road Safety"?!?!?!?!?

 

I should start posting Dashcam video of my everyday trips here in Bangkok, then let the public rate "Road Safety" in "Thailand".....I can count almost 100 violations in a 45 minute trip, half of which would be considered "Driving to Endanger" charges in any other country.

[wilcopops]

1 hour ago, Magenta408 said:

There have never been so many deaths and accidents on the road than this year during the recent holidays. Perhaps the Japanese are truly uninformed?

The death rate during holidays is usually lower than the rest of the year.

[wilcopops]

As with all these threads, it turns into a Thai-bashing fest with people talking about DRIVING as if that is the same as road safety - this shows they actually don't even understand the basics of road safety, regardless of where they are in the world.

Road safety is a health and safety issue of which driving is only a part.

The truth is that in a 4-wheeled vehicle, your chances of dying on a Thai road are about the same as in the USA.

Those "knocking" Thai drivers do so not out of scientific observation but from confirmation bias stemming from a basically racist feeling of self-superiority. In reality they are admitting to their own failings both as drivers and critical thinkers.

[ocddave]

44 minutes ago, wilcopops said:

As with all these threads, it turns into a Thai-bashing fest with people talking about DRIVING as if that is the same as road safety - this shows they actually don't even understand the basics of road safety, regardless of where they are in the world.

Road safety is a health and safety issue of which driving is only a part.

The truth is that in a 4-wheeled vehicle, your chances of dying on a Thai road are about the same as in the USA.

Those "knocking" Thai drivers do so not out of scientific observation but from confirmation bias stemming from a basically racist feeling of self-superiority. In reality they are admitting to their own failings both as drivers and critical thinkers.

You sir, are delusional!!!!

[Moonlover]

9 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

11 hours ago, webfact said:

He cited several examples. One was a hill known as Khao Pleung in Uttaradit where there were 27 accidents in 2015.

 

After measures were introduced in 2016 this was down to just 13 accidents. In 2017 it was only nine. 

 

Other places were also success stories such as a black spot in Pathum Thani north of Bangkok. An area of Route 3312 had experienced an 80% reduction in accidents after advice by the Japanese to the Thais.

 

9 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

So now they've gone to make their accident some other place then, as the overall numbers are still high?

In truth that's what has been happening all along.

 

They may well be using highway engineering to reduce accidents at 'black spots', it a common practice in many countries and is known to be effective. And, to be fair, these efforts are commendable.

 

But nothing they have said here address's the real issue that most accidents and deaths are motorcycle related and happen on rural roads, with around 50% of them being DUIs. This is the intractable problem that they face.

 

 

[Sambotte]

It's a joke yes ? ????

 

I drive a big bike in Thailand, i'm good at driving and surviving in extreme conditions.

Typically Thai care only about turn signal, i don't know why, Japanese advice ? ????

They make always the same basic big mistakes :

- Driving with one hand a motorcycle, with mobile, luguage, babies...

- Not stoping at intersection, the look sometime, but engage, slowly and dangerously

- Going wrong way, they can't resist

- Passing a motorcycle by going way too on the other way, with bad trajectory

- No sense of trajectory, that's something...

- Not looking environment

- Speeding at night or under rain, when they should slow down

- On a 4 way, passing using the opposite way

Etc.

 

But yeah sure, they definitely have improve the use of turn signal, like it was the only lesson.

 

I bet Japanese know how to drive, so it's a joke or it's pure politic-diplomaty ???? 

 

Does not look like Thai-driving will improve anytime soon.

[Sambotte]

Did not read correctly. Roads may be better. Except there is so many road under very long construction/upgrade, it's full of dust/sand, holes etc. in many place, not exactly safe for big bikes.

[MaxYakov]

Naturally the Japanese are not going to recommend the most obvious way to improve road safety:

 

Dump Two-wheeled Motor Vehicles.

 

Not a mystery as to why they wouldn't recommend doing this. And Thailand's economy would suffer drastically if they did so (an impossibility, I'd say).

 

 

[Aussie999]

I suspect something was lost in translation, considering Thailand's death toll, on roads, has increased, not decreased.

[Moonlover]

7 hours ago, Aussie999 said:

I suspect something was lost in translation, considering Thailand's death toll, on roads, has increased, not decreased.

The 'loss of translation' seems to be in your own head. They do not claim in the article that the number of deaths on the roads has been reduced.

 

The only claim is that they have reduced the number of accidents in certain known 'black spots'. That may well have reduced the number of deaths at those locations, but that does not necessarily translate into a reduction overall.

[Scott]

A post containing racial slurs has been reported and removed.  

[wilcopops]

Idiot drivers are international - they re not the prerogative of any one country. Road safety is all bout protecting this idiots from themselves .......it is unfortunate that in countries where this has been successfully achieved, the idiots doin't realize it and believe themselves to be "really good drivers" and assume the this is the reason why their home country has a low death rate.

It's all a bit like the emperor's new clothes, really.