Thailand: An unequal society even when it comes to appalling road carnage, foreign media

[Isaanbiker]

18 hours ago, PatOngo said:

I don't hear too many locals complaining, comes with the indoctrination from birth that they live in the best country on earth!

Oops, wanted to write something, but lost my face. 

[owenm]

While 1% of the elite own 70% of Thai's wealth, nothing will ever change with inequality between the haves and have-nots.. The hisos can rule with impunity, because money talks.. 

[PatOngo]

2 minutes ago, Isaanbiker said:

Oops, wanted to write something, but lost my face. 

I thought that was an Asian trait!

[seajae]

we have been forced to brake suddenly and forced off the road by more drivers in/on older cars & bikes that were not up market than those in bmw's, just yesterday we had to brake & swerve off the road on a blind corner because some idiot in a sh*t box was overtaking on our side of the road. While the rich get away with murder in Thailand most of the accidents are caused by the average to poor  riders/drivers, lack of education, knowing/obeying the road rules or even having a licence is a big part of it. In the years I have been living here there is only one time someone in an up market car made us avoid them, virtually every time we drive common cars/bikes are the ones that cut you off/pull out from the side of the road, refuse to give way, dont indicate, swerve to your side of the road to turn right or avoid a puddle/road patch, pull out to over take and expect you to pull off the road to allow them to do it because they dont want to have to slow down and with bikes cut across the front of you from the left to do a right turn/u turn while you are moving. Common sense and consideration of others while driving/riding does not enter their minds, they consider themselves only, being rich or poor doesnt make any difference  until they kill/injure someone then the rich get away with it while the poor do not

[Bangkok Barry]

19 hours ago, petermik said:

This report will fall on deaf ears here.....anyone with any power to change things will ignore it....Thai,s know best and outside opinions are never considered 

 

A pity it wasn't written by Bill Gates ????

[spidermike007]

While the information presented in the article is true, with regard to traffic, and the rich not having to face justice here, the NY Times does not really have any moral authority, when it comes to the discussion of wealth disparity. That very issue is becoming more alarming by the day, in the US. The top 8% are doing very well there. The rest? An awful lot of couples working three jobs to survive. Costs are skyrocketing, despite what the goons tell us about fake inflation numbers, and wages are barely rising. A decent 2 bedroom home or apartment costs $3,200 to $4,000 a month to rent, in Los Angeles, and many large cities are becoming unaffordable for most. Health costs are stunning, and the bottom 70% live paycheck to paycheck, and are one $5,000 expense away from disaster. Barely a month's worth of savings. If that. 

 

Also, with regard to justice, the American judicial system is nearly as corrupt as here in Thailand, in a sense. If you have a few million dollars, to throw at a legal team, they can more than likely create doubt in the mind of the jurors. Just look at O.J. 

 

I am thrilled I live here. My dollars go quite far, and I have the kind of lifestyle I could never dream of having in the US. 

[Solinvictus]

20 hours ago, SammyT said:

Strange article this one. While the poor are definitely statistically over-represented in the road deaths - avoidable things such as not wearing helmets, driving at excessive speed and habitual drink driving does not help their cause. For every poor person who gets mowed down by a rich person in a BMW, I bet there are 100 times more who die in an avoidable manner as a result of their own actions (or inactions).

 

Absolutely concur that the rich are far less likely to face justice or be punished though. 

IMO, rather than putting the entire blame on the poor based on "their own actions", it would be better to blame the government for it's inability to provide convenience and proper driver training steps. Most people need to take time off work and often times a single day is not enough to complete this, actually, it cant be, I believe. Also, as I mentioned, better training should be provided by the gov.

 

Too often many are quick to blame those most vulnerable. Seeking to put the entire responsibility on them however, a wider context should addressed. This is something that IMO wont be done here.

[Solinvictus]

I was just reminded the other day, wasn't there a Canadian man cycling through several countries a few years back? To only die once he adventured here. Terrible.

[Fred white]

3 hours ago, MaxLee said:

Yep they cannot read English, so they won't care.....

But the dic I mean PM has read all those books that are in English

[bowerboy]

22 hours ago, SammyT said:

Strange article this one. While the poor are definitely statistically over-represented in the road deaths - avoidable things such as not wearing helmets, driving at excessive speed and habitual drink driving does not help their cause. For every poor person who gets mowed down by a rich person in a BMW, I bet there are 100 times more who die in an avoidable manner as a result of their own actions (or inactions).

 

Absolutely concur that the rich are far less likely to face justice or be punished though. 

 

The poor die in an avoidable manner because they are stupid.

 

They are stupid because they do not get a good education.

 

They do not get a good education because they are poor.

[bowerboy]

3 points about this article:

 

1. It’s a brilliant article when you read the whole thing. It is the entire story of Thailand’s road carnage problems.

 

2. It was posted in BP yesterday and looked like a normal article. Within 2 sentences I knew for sure it was impossible that it could of been a locally generated piece of writing. The quality was simply too high (which I think speaks volumes about the low quality of just about everything here).

 

3. The most frustrating and infuriating part for me is the patheticness of the woman whose daughter was killed in the motorcycle accident. First of all she had no idea that the roads are dangerous in Thailand. Secondly she lamented that she is poor and she is powerless to do anything. Really?? I would love to know who she voted for in the election and what her reasoning was. For me this was so so symbolic of the root of Thailand’s problems.

[atyclb]

22 hours ago, PatOngo said:

I don't hear too many locals complaining, comes with the indoctrination from birth that they live in the best country on earth!

 

 

correction;  best planet in the solar system

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

10 hours ago, samsensam said:

really? my thai friends are incredibly frustrated and angry about the state of contemporary thai society; exactly as stated in the article they hate way the rich get away with behaving as they want with little or no retribution and feel powerless in the face of the rampant corruption.

 That's probably why too many of them go out and get drunk or use drugs (to dull the pain), and drive like maniacs because at least they can be their own little kings and queens in their cars (even if they can't be in the real world)... right up until they crash themselves or get taken out by someone else like minded. And lots of people end up dead.

 

PS - I'm not talking about YOUR friends per se because I don't know them, but the common local citizens at large.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, Solinvictus said:

IMO, rather than putting the entire blame on the poor based on "their own actions", it would be better to blame the government for it's inability to provide convenience and proper driver training steps. Most people need to take time off work and often times a single day is not enough to complete this, actually, it cant be, I believe. Also, as I mentioned, better training should be provided by the gov.

 

Too often many are quick to blame those most vulnerable. Seeking to put the entire responsibility on them however, a wider context should addressed. This is something that IMO wont be done here.

 

For every "rich person wipes out regular Thai person/people and gets off with a slap on the wrist," there are vastly more cases of just regular to poor Thai people wiping out themselves and other regular to poor Thai people, for sure.

 

And yet, while the regular to poor people are the direct cause of those crashes and deaths, I really blame the government and the rich/upper crust folks who populate it as the main cause....  Because for years, they've known of the crisis, had the ability to do things to remedy it, and consistently have done nothing.

 

They've allowed a culture and society to exist where the laws are not uniformly and seriously enforced, where offenders (even poor ones) can get off minor traffic offenses just by paying the officer, where drivers' training and licenses and helmets are not meaningfully enforced, where traffic laws are not enforced and bad drivers are not caught and cited, and where the punishments for those that are are often meager.

 

That's why Thailand has road deaths and injuries on an epic scale.

 

 

 

[RichardColeman]

 

6 hours ago, PatOngo said:

I only ever hear them whinge that there's not enough poo dam in their somtam!

You should hear me whinge about all the dam poo after the wife's Somtam !

[Knocker33]

On 8/20/2019 at 2:59 PM, petermik said:

This report will fall on deaf ears here.....anyone with any power to change things will ignore it....Thai,s know best and outside opinions are never considered 

No but they hate being criticized in the world press.It might hurt their precious tourist numbers

[Inn Between]

“As police, there are many things we cannot do,” General Jirasunt said. “We cannot build more roads and public transportation. We cannot change the number of cars on the road. We cannot change the attitudes of people so they have discipline.”

 

That last statement is not true, and an example was given in the article where it claims that in districts where law is enforced with more regularity and fines are assessed, more people wear helmets. 

 

When police generals have the attitude that they can't do anything to improve people's discipline and change their attitudes, it's just not going to happen. How can these people in lofty positions not see that enforcement of laws at street level by the police is the ONLY way attitudes will change? It's the brass of the police force that apparently need an attitude adjustment first. Then maybe they can approach their jobs with some degree of logic. 

 

A sabai-sabia attitude is fine for many things but not when road safety is involved.