Minister's speed proposal stuns Thailand: Collision at 120 kmph same as falling 19 stories, says media

[sambum]

6 hours ago, Worldplus said:

I really wish we could ride motor bikes of 400 CC up on motorways...  Cannot work out why this is not applied..

Possibly because of this? :-

 

[Andycoops]

I hope he drives at 120 kph everywhere and then the silly ☆☆☆☆ won't be around very long.

[FarFlungFalang]

41 minutes ago, MrMo said:

What is the maximum number of floors you can fall without being killed ?   Once we know that we can workout what the maximum speed limit should be.   My guess that it will be close to the speed Thais go when shuffling around a mall or supermarket.

In that case people have fallen out of planes and not been killed and people have died from falling over whist standing on the ground so take your pick!

[Monomial]

The safest speed to drive is the same speed as everyone else on the road. The most dangerous condition is a relative speed difference between slow moving traffic and fast moving traffic. Absolute speed is surprisingly less of a factor that you might otherwise think, as long as that speed is safe for road conditions. It is dangerous to keep the speed limit at 80 when everyone is driving 120. Some idiot is likely to decide that since the speed limit is 80, that is what he is going to do, safety be damned and forcing everyone to go around him, change lanes and basically just being an obstruction to traffic.

 

Set the limit at an acceptable speed for a road. Not too fast but also not too slow and make sure everyone drives that speed. The whole experiment with 55mph in the USA was a dismal failure. It was originally implemented during the oil crisis of the 70's as an attempt to save fuel, and sold to the public as "55 saves lives". Many studies showed it really did nothing of the sort with regard to safety, it was hugely unpopular, so with the oil crisis ended, the artificial attempt to place the speed limit at an artificially low level was repealed.

 

There is good science behind the idea to raise the limit to 120 kph if that is the speed traffic is already moving.

 

[kevinmartyn]

In my opinion and i'm a foreign! The root cause is just bad driving training and attitude on the roads towards other drivers! I've been in Thailand for several years and I've seen drivers driving towards oncoming traffic numerous times and drivers truly believing because they have the hazard lights flashing gives them the right to drive on the wrong side of the road! When was the last time I've seen this madness ot was today 2 August 2019 in KhumKlao road Bangkok. The major police station in the same road seem to allow this madness! The other issues is drivers using the outside lane on highways and refuse to move! The lane is an overtaking lane and not their lane. A large percentage of Thai drivers do NOT indicate when changing lanes and often "tailgate" mm away from the car in front with their lights flashing lights like a driver processed by a demon, ordering you to move! What the Thai Government and Police really need to do is get tough with these "DRIVERS" and introduce a points system on the driving licence as in the UK without going into too much details 12 points on the licence and you get banned from driving and on occasion ordered to re-sit a driving test , also these drivers should get higher insurance costs. Anyway perhaps that would be a step in the right direction for the utter madness seen on the roads in Thailand! Limit the sppeed on busses, people carriers and Taxis to 55 KPH again maybe an answer. Heavy fines for motorcycle and other drivers in cars, pick-UPS or trucks driving in the wrong direction! on a road no matter how many lanes. Bottom line is thd "Government" and "Police" need to open their eyes, and get tough with these insane drivers on Thai roads. The introduction of a 12 point system on driving licenseing. The new-laws passed now, and not in five years!????????

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

In a piece warning Thais about speeding they said that having a collision at 120 kmph was the same as falling to the ground from 19 stories up.

So if you die on an expressway the verdict will be called suicide?

Works for foreigners!

[FarFlungFalang]

39 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

The solution there would be not to put brick walls in the middle of a highway then....  

 

Of course, the above is a tongue-in-cheek response to your post which seems to take 'speed kills' a little too literally, of course it does, no one would argue that. But highways are for getting places, thus speed limits of 120kmh are not deadly, idiotic driving is.

I realise the tongue in cheekiness of your response but there are many concrete barriers in the middle of highway not only here but around the world and I don't mean across the road but parallel any the difference of hitting these at high speed and low speed is significant,hitting these at 120 kmh is deadly well that's my opinion so we can agree to disagree.What the idiot is suggesting is that when there are 4 lanes to allow 120 kmh.Now as an example I often travel on the road between Yasothon and Ubon Rachathani and it is 4 lanes the whole way but it passes through many villages and small towns and is riddled with U turns and all sorts of conveyances from pedestrians to B double multi trailer trucks with everything in between and throw school crossings into the mix and the atrocious condition of the surface only a completely brainless person would suggest that 120 kmh would be a good idea and I haven't even mentioned the idiotic driving. 

[Jimdandy]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Thaivisa notes that in more developed countries

Hey just a minute wise guy! Are you trying to say we're not developed yet or something? 

[natway09]

He does not want injuries, only death

[FarFlungFalang]

24 minutes ago, Monomial said:

There is good science behind the idea to raise the limit to 120 kph if that is the speed traffic is already moving.

This is Thailand,would you care to provide a link to this good science?I suggest you take a drive on some of the four lane roads in Thailand to see the conditions that exist before suggesting that because a few drivers travel at 120 kmh that everybody else might as well.There is absolutely no good science in this suggestion for Thai road conditions and the abilities of most Thai drivers.You are insulting your own intelligence suggesting this.

[Cake Monster]

7 hours ago, Gumballl said:

And piss poor road construction. What Thai moron decided it was safe to put a U-turn on a highway?

U-Turns probably feature in over 70% of accidents in Thailand.

As a person that has been involved in Motor Sport Safety, slow moving traffic trying to merge into fast moving traffic is an absolute disaster waiting to happen.

Only in Thailands case, it already is a disaster.

[kwak250]

Imagine a uk style 12 point system here.

Most locals would lose there license within a week.

Mind you its not like they would stop driving as getting stopped without a licence is only about 200baht and your good to go.

 

[dallen52]

There are heaps of educated people who have done the calculations on this subject.

An understanding of this should be part of the learning to drive process. 

 

You are not falling off a building, you are in control of a deadly missile. 

People like myself have worked in vehicle design and safety trying to make the vehicles safer in the event of an accident. 

But you can't factor in stupidity. 

 

Perhaps the collision avoidance systems should be standard issue for all vehicles?

 

In the case of Thailand and many people here, the thinking times need to be more than doubled. 

 

But what hope is there when people still buy licenses or simply drive without one...

Or overload vehicles. 

Or drive under the influence. 

Or drive un roadworthy vehicles. 

The list goes on, and on, and on. 

 

Quite sad really, the number of people who are killed, injured, maimed, every day here.

 

 

[portly]

N n n nineteen stories !

[rossco1]

On ‎7‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 4:23 PM, remorhaz said:

Taking pictures like that offends the Buddha but theft, corruption, fraud and outright lies do not.  In fact those don't even warrant a top up of the Red Fanta to feed the hornets.  

lie cheat steal all good in land of smiles 

[Samuel Smith]

1 hour ago, collingwood said:

500 baht speeding fine for doing 103 kmph

snap!  plus 1000bt for 125kph on hwy1 north of Bangkok

[zyphodb]

8 hours ago, les Dennis said:

Does anybody know of anyone that has had a legitimate speeding fine under the current law ?

Yes, me, twice in Isaan on dual carriageways doing less than 120 kmh on my BMW 650 bike....

[Baerboxer]

8 hours ago, YetAnother said:

thais cannot manage the current speed limits, much less higher ones

 

Most don't pay any attention to the speed limits or any other traffic laws and do as they please. So changing it ain't gonna change anything.

[digger70]

8 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

If I hit a brick wall at 10 kms per hr not much damage if I hit a wall at 150 kms per hr probably death kills more than speed or at least the sudden stop.

Well Don't hit the bloody wall learn to drive .

[Humpy]

They do 120 kph now so why change it? Speed doesn't kill but the rate at which you stop does. 

[soalbundy]

so we have a choice, crash at 120kmh or fall from 19 floors up, it's a tough one I'll admit.

[soalbundy]

1 hour ago, Jimdandy said:

Hey just a minute wise guy! Are you trying to say we're not developed yet or something? 

developed yes but it's not life as we know it.

[FarFlungFalang]

44 minutes ago, dallen52 said:

Quite sad really, the number of people who are killed, injured, maimed, every day here.

If an elephant or a tiger in one year the news travels globally but when 24,000 Thais die on the roads not a blip.This is also sad. 

[Ctkong]

9 hours ago, YetAnother said:

thais cannot manage the current speed limits, much less higher ones

Poor driving skills, poor vehicle maintenance, poor adherence to traffic rules , poor traffic flow design, poor traffic enforcement all contributed to the carnage on thai roads. 

[Chelseafan]

3 hours ago, Chiang Mai Bill said:

Speed plus idiotic driving does though!

You don't need speed to kill someone using a car.

 

[thailand49]

I've suggested this a number of times when it comes to the Department of Land Transport they should get rid of the entire departments they are out of touch and the biggest reason there is an epidemic problem with the driving.

 

This is another example!   Call them stupid that would be giving them too much credit!  They have also stated that there isn't a problem with how the roads are design here the list goes on and on. 

 

First line of fixing the problem PM needs to declare Section 44, close this department down and get them all out of there A/C offices and smell the coffee!

[sambum]

1 hour ago, FarFlungFalang said:

This is Thailand,would you care to provide a link to this good science?I suggest you take a drive on some of the four lane roads in Thailand to see the conditions that exist before suggesting that because a few drivers travel at 120 kmh that everybody else might as well.There is absolutely no good science in this suggestion for Thai road conditions and the abilities of most Thai drivers.You are insulting your own intelligence suggesting this.

Yes - if a few drivers in their Porsches or Ferraris travel at 250 km an hour then everybody else should try to? I'd like to see the results - no, sorry, I would NOT like to see the results of such an idiotic proposal as Thailand's roads are probably among the most lethal in the world already!

[Chelseafan]

5 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

You must know where the nest is because you seem to be in it with the rest of us.Speed kills. lt's definately a major contributing factor to the death toll.If you only reduced the speed at which people travel to 50 kph the death toll is reduced it's a fact.I'm not talking about reducing the speed limit but the actual speed.Idiocy is people who say speed doesn't contribute to the death toll and does in fact kill.

Please explain to me then why the Autobahn is one of the safest road systems in Europe with around 1.6 deaths per 1billion of KM traveled? I'll tell you why, the drivers are better taught, have better awareness, look after their cars (including brakes), follow the rules of the road and don't tailgate or make sudden unexpected maneuvers.

 

I agree that crashing at 150kph will have more than an impact than crashing at 30kph but I bet you the majority of collisions in Thailand are alcohol/drug/phone induced or through very poor driving skills including sudden braking, not indicating, not looking etc.

 

 

[essox essox]

1 hour ago, zyphodb said:

Yes, me, twice in Isaan on dual carriageways doing less than 120 kmh on my BMW 650 bike....

so why did you pay if you were doing LESS than the speed limit ON THAT ROAD ????

[Chelseafan]

5 hours ago, bluesofa said:

From the UK highway code page below, you can see the stopping distance increases from 73 metres at 96km/hr, to 96 metres at 112 km/hr.

 

(click to enlarge)

 

Theres a couple of points here.

 

The braking distances were set in the 1960/70's where cars were god-damned awful. Technology has come a long way since. Secondly, there is no way anyone is going to leave a 96m gap on the M1 driving at 70mph as cars will fill that gap up very quickly leading you to have to brake to let them in. I don't disagree with the information, its just not practical in today's age with more cars on the road.