Thailand road carnage: Media reveal nearly 1,000 more died last year at the scene of accidents

[webfact]

Thailand road carnage: Media reveal nearly 1,000 more died last year at the scene of accidents

 

Thai caption: Campaign to lessen the death toll on the roads: Monday's death toll: 73

Picture: Daily News

 

Thailand's appalling road accident statistics showed no sign of improvement last year - in fact they were much worse despite official rhetoric that something was being done. 

 

Daily News reported that deaths at the scene in 2018 (January 1st to December 31st) were 13,956.

 

Last year in the same time period this rose to 14,907. 

 

Stats for 2017 (January 1st to December 25th) were 13,426 dead at the scene. 

 

Picture: Daily News

 

The media always warns that this is just fatalities at the scene of accidents. The reality is that when deaths on the way to hospitals and at hospitals themselves are included the figures are much worse. 

 

Senior Thai government officials including DPM Prawit Wongsuwan admitted last year that the figure was in excess of 20,000. Thai road safety advocates put it between 24,000 and 26,000 per year, notes Thaivisa.

 

Meanwhile, 2020 is looking just as bad as ever. 

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Daily News - in their ongoing campaign to raise awareness and try and lessen the carnage -  said 73 people died yesterday alone.

 

This brought the death toll for the first 20 days of January to 840 people. 

 

One of those who lost their lives was 48 year old Phaiboon on a motorcycle who was run over by a ten wheel truck in Kalasin in Thailand's north east. 

 

Source: Daily News

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-01-21

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[khwaibah]

Great job Thailand. You can be the world hub of road kill I have faith in you.????

[ThreeEyedRaven]

21 minutes ago, webfact said:

official rhetoric that something was being done. 

Official rubbish more like. In all the years I have been here I have not once seen the cops doing anything about tackling unsafe driving. Tea money stops everywhere, but those just enhance the cops wages rather than preventing accidents. The reality is people can drive how the hell they like with impunity from prosecution in this lifetime, and the longer they get away with it without killing themselves first, the higher the numbers will be, which this article shows is what is actually happening.

[BobbyL]

The stats are utterly scandalous. Thailand should be ashamed that people are dying continuously every hour on their roads and absolutely nothing is being done about it. The roads are completely lawless. 

[dcsw53]

WorldAtlas has the figure of death at scene as 25,000. But we are still behind Libya, and kicking out all the old farangs will not improve our score. Help is on the way, the increase of speed limits on dual carriageways from 90km to 120km/hr is a move in the right direction.

[saengd]

Controls population growth and removes the dimmest too, I hate to sound callous but it does work.

[Sticky Wicket]

2 minutes ago, saengd said:

Controls population growth and removes the dimmest too, I hate to sound callous but it does work.

Often the dimmest take out a few good uns' too!

[Borzandy]

57 minutes ago, webfact said:

Media reveal nearly 1,000 more died last year at the scene of accidents

" at the scene of accidents" In fact, we should expect 3 times more.

[Docno]

19 minutes ago, saengd said:

Controls population growth and removes the dimmest too, I hate to sound callous but it does work.

The problem is that Thailand already has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, and is THE lowest among developing nations. That has big impact on the economic well-being of the country... https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-thailand-baby-bust/ 

[xtof2]

Well done !

Come on ! I am sure you can still improve to beat Libya and become # 1.

On the pollution rank, I am very disappointed. Bangkok ranks # 14 today, down from # 8 yesterday.

I am sure the generals won't be happy .

[Wiggy]

Looking at the chart in the article the death toll seems to be higher on a Monday; 6th (69), 13th (56) and the 20th (73). I wonder why that is.

[saengd]

2 minutes ago, Wiggy said:

Looking at the chart in the article the death toll seems to be higher on a Monday; 6th (69), 13th (56) and the 20th (73). I wonder why that is.

I'm guessing high alcohol consumption over the weekend, still in the blood stream on Monday morning, maybe.

[Wiggy]

1 minute ago, saengd said:

I'm guessing high alcohol consumption over the weekend, still in the blood stream on Monday morning, maybe.

Thanks for your reply. To be honest, I did think that, but I would've thought that accidents would be higher on the weekend itself, unless people are drinking loads and not driving? Just thought it to be a little strange for Mondays to be the highest.

[dinsdale]

Much worse indeed. If they actually counted the people who died from their injuries outside of the 24hr cut off point after the accident the real figure would be much much higher indeed.

[RichardColeman]

I would say imprison every Thai that kills anyone on the roads, but that would just be silly - there aren't enough prisons

[rickb]

I have lived here in Thailand since 2007 and each year, without fail, especially around the 7-day holidays, I have heard the Government saying they were going to crack down on speeding and driving intoxicated.  Yet, every year the statistics of deaths on the roads has remained essentially the same.  The truth is that every year this serious problem only receives lip service and no real actions have ever been taken in an effort to reduce the number of fatalities.  Also, without fail, every year we farangs have clearly identified several actions that could be taken to help tackle this problem, ideas like enforce speed limits, implement serious penalties for breaking laws like driving intoxicated, speeding, driving in the wrong direction (especially with a motorcycle), youth driving without a license, etc., etc.  Yet, sadly, nothing ever changes here in Thailand.  So I fully expect that we will continue reading horrible statistics about road deaths because neither the government nor the police really care.

[legend49]

1 hour ago, Wiggy said:

Looking at the chart in the article the death toll seems to be higher on a Monday; 6th (69), 13th (56) and the 20th (73). I wonder why that is.

The lottery numbers?

[legend49]

47 minutes ago, rickb said:

I have lived here in Thailand since 2007 and each year, without fail, especially around the 7-day holidays, I have heard the Government saying they were going to crack down on speeding and driving intoxicated.  Yet, every year the statistics of deaths on the roads has remained essentially the same.  The truth is that every year this serious problem only receives lip service and no real actions have ever been taken in an effort to reduce the number of fatalities.  Also, without fail, every year we farangs have clearly identified several actions that could be taken to help tackle this problem, ideas like enforce speed limits, implement serious penalties for breaking laws like driving intoxicated, speeding, driving in the wrong direction (especially with a motorcycle), youth driving without a license, etc., etc.  Yet, sadly, nothing ever changes here in Thailand.  So I fully expect that we will continue reading horrible statistics about road deaths because neither the government nor the police really care.

Proves how useless the government is, no leadership. Thais dont read road signs either so no good putting up warning signs.

[Enki]

1 hour ago, Wiggy said:

Looking at the chart in the article the death toll seems to be higher on a Monday; 6th (69), 13th (56) and the 20th (73). I wonder why that is.

Because they hurry to work, or work overtime the first day of the week, and drive home exhausted.

[Enki]

54 minutes ago, rickb said:

I have lived here in Thailand since 2007 and each year, without fail, especially around the 7-day holidays, I have heard the Government saying they were going to crack down on speeding and driving intoxicated.  Yet, every year the statistics of deaths on the roads has remained essentially the same.  The truth is that every year this serious problem only receives lip service and no real actions have ever been taken in an effort to reduce the number of fatalities.  Also, without fail, every year we farangs have clearly identified several actions that could be taken to help tackle this problem, ideas like enforce speed limits, implement serious penalties for breaking laws like driving intoxicated, speeding, driving in the wrong direction (especially with a motorcycle), youth driving without a license, etc., etc.  Yet, sadly, nothing ever changes here in Thailand.  So I fully expect that we will continue reading horrible statistics about road deaths because neither the government nor the police really care.

So you are to blind to see the road blocks where they actually do crack down on drunk driving?

[trainman34014]

1 hour ago, dcsw53 said:

WorldAtlas has the figure of death at scene as 25,000. But we are still behind Libya, and kicking out all the old farangs will not improve our score. Help is on the way, the increase of speed limits on dual carriageways from 90km to 120km/hr is a move in the right direction.

Yes; people die faster when they are driving at higher speeds so they will be counted at the scene and not hidden away !

[Saint Nick]

3 minutes ago, Enki said:

So you are to blind to see the road blocks where they actually do crack down on drunk driving?

Do they, though?

Or do they just open their hands and let anyone go, who's willing to cough up a few hundred baht?

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Senior Thai government officials including DPM Prawit Wongsuwan admitted last year that the figure was in excess of 20,000. Thai road safety advocates put it between 24,000 and 26,000 per year, notes Thaivisa.

 

And by comparison, researchers back in late 2017 estimated that the bad air pollution in Thailand is directly responsible for about 38,000 deaths per year, or about 6 percent of all deaths here.

 

So if the roads don't get you... the air pollution will!

 

The road deaths are a very obvious, open killer. The air pollution is a quiet, silent killer.

 

 

 

[Kerryd]

1 hour ago, saengd said:

I'm guessing high alcohol consumption over the weekend, still in the blood stream on Monday morning, maybe.

 

59 minutes ago, Wiggy said:

Thanks for your reply. To be honest, I did think that, but I would've thought that accidents would be higher on the weekend itself, unless people are drinking loads and not driving? Just thought it to be a little strange for Mondays to be the highest.

I'd say that it may have to do with people partying at home on Sunday night and then trying to get back to (wherever) in the wee hours of Monday morning so they can get to work (or school). Lots of people probably party all night on Friday/Saturday and don't want to drive on Sunday and then end up partying on Sunday as well. Try to get an hour's sleep then drive back to (wherever) in time for (whatever).

The chart shows that, for the first 20 days of the month the average daily death toll is 42. Over a year that works out to 15,330 which is even more than this year. However, it's possible the numbers could drop once people are back into a non-holiday routine.

Canada has about half the population of Thailand, with everything from wide open highways across the prairies to the urban jungles of the big cities, with heaps of freezing snow and ice to deal with for half the year as well.

Total road deaths in 2017 - 1,841 (and they count anyone who was in an accident and died within 30 days after the accident). The total includes pedestrians, drivers, passengers and cyclists. An average of 5 per day.

I guess there's something to be said for more efficient and effective policing, better driver training/qualification standards - and better emergency response/healthcare I suppose as well. Still cringe when I think about how they throw people in the back of a pickup and drive them off to a hospital somewhere without any backboards or spinal support (or any other kind of medical support).
No wonder they don't include all the people who die in the hospitals afterwards. Their numbers would dwarf every other countries by a mile !
 

[Cake Monster]

2 hours ago, saengd said:

Controls population growth and removes the dimmest too, I hate to sound callous but it does work.

The modern form of Natural Selection Process

[Sinistralian]

So here's the oxymoron. We've all seen the surge in cyclists on the roads-complete with 

Lycra outfits and headgear. But when the same folk ( not all obviously ) mount the motorbikes - do they bother with a crash helmet?? Greater speed - but Buddha will protect!

Talking of oxymorons - you see the explosion in wearing facemasks? What use they have is problematic. But more than once I've seen guys lift the mask up , light up and smoke!!

It's best these people don't breed, methinks.

[natway09]

So the truth is that they do not know the actual figure & worse is that obviously they do not care.

This is costing this country Billions

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The WHO did an updated report in 2018 on world road fatalities as of 2016, including individual country profiles. They put the Thailand number at about 22,491 for 2016, or 32.7 fatalities per 100,000 population. Below is the summary for Thailand:

 

https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2018/en/

 

 

[Chongalulu]

A thick culture kills them selves on the road and thick people in charge pretend to know or care about how to address it. Just yesterday morning a father came to pick up his young son from our house to drive him to a family funeral 200 kilometers away where 3 of them died in a road accident....and he was completely pi$$ed and stinking of booze!! 

The Thai thick gene.

[Redline]

3 hours ago, khwaibah said:

Great job Thailand. You can be the world hub of road kill I have faith in you.????

I’m sure you they are number one when all fatalities are counted.  Just like they have their own safe pollution numbers that are higher than international standards