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Most Road Fatalities Involve Motorcycle


snoop1130

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Most Road Fatalities Involve Motorcycle

 

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BANGKOK, Oct 30 (TNA) –  Most deaths from road accidents during the Loy Krathong Festival involved motorcycles, said Don’t Drive Drunk Foundation  Secretary-General Thaejing Siripanit.

 

The foundation is concerned over road traffic deaths during the Loy Krathong celebration this year, he said citing last year’s figures that showed 161 deaths and 8,205 injuries.

 

Most deaths were related to driving while under influence of alcohol.

 

Full Story: https://tna.mcot.net/english-news/line-today-english-news-574144

 

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-- © Copyright TNA 2020-10-30
 
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13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Most deaths from road accidents during the Loy Krathong Festival involved motorcycles,

 

That is all fine & well but perhaps an obvious observation considering drunken car/truck drivers have

seat belts & a metal box surrounding them when they plow thru the motorcycles

Edited by meechai
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I routinely see scooters zipping down the highway at 80-100kph, small bike, small tires, no helmets, 2 people on the bike.  Zipping in and out of traffic, passing on the left, the right, etc.  And most don't even have proper licenses.

 

Many times, it's not the scooters fault.  It's another scooter or vehicle that's run into them.

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It's been a known fact for years, not just during Loy Krathong.

Of all the road accidents (and fatalities) every year in Thailand, it is estimated that 70% of them involved motorcycles and most of those of course are of the 90-150cc "scooter" type.

Not a surprise when you consider that in 2019, of all the registered vehicles on the roads (40.2 million), motorcycles make up just over half (21 million). Compared to 9.7 million cars and 6.7 million pick-up trucks (which include all those "baht buses" and pick-up delivery trucks). So 21 million motorcycles and 16.4 million cars/light trucks.
(The remainder of the total would be buses and the larger commercial vehicles.)

That's why the gov'ts decision to make a new license category for "big bikes" is such a joke. They make claims about how many "big bikes" are involved in accidents (without any stats), despite the fact that "big bikes" (anything over 400cc by their definition) represent a tiny fraction of the overall number of motorcycles on the road. The new license requirement will do nothing to reduce the number of traffic accidents/fatalities so long as they continue to have poor enforcement standards when it comes to people on scooters.

And remember the directive from the new Police General, where he said the cops wouldn't be doing roadside breathalyzer testing anymore (but if they think you've been drinking they'll send you to a hospital to be tested instead).

I asked a friend of mine who is a traffic cop about that and he just looked down and shook his head. He knew it meant there'd be even more drunk drivers on the roads because most of them wouldn't have to fear being breathalyzed so would be more willing to risk driving while drunk.

Another scary number. Despite the covid lockdowns, lack of tourists and various alcohol restrictions, the number of people dying in traffic accidents is only down by about 30%. The last article I saw that tallied road fatalities had it around 40 per day on average, down from the 60 per day at the same time last year.
(Lack of tourists means many bars aren't open or doing good business, so the staff aren't getting drunk as often or have the money to go drinking elsewhere when the bar closes, resulting in fewer drunks on the road everyday.)

I expect that between now and the end of the "7 Deadly Days" during the Christmas/New Year's period, the number of accidents/fatalities will see a sharp spike. Regardless of covid or tourists or anything else (short of another emergency decree or coup perhaps).

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The reason there are so many fatalities is the Government fails to do anything about it.  More Police on the roads, more licence checking, enforce the wearing of helmets, ensure all riders have taken a course on riding a bike and have passed it and start putting (interesting) road safety videos on local TV to educate the masses.  Sadly no one can make any "kick-backs" from this which means nothing will happen.  So, so sad, but the population needs educating for their own safety.

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9 hours ago, RobU said:

I am not surprised my experience  is that thai motorcyclists have absolutely no road sense or consideration for pedestrians or other vehicles. They drive 'like pedestrians walk' with no awareness of what is around them completely oblivious of danger

 

It's not like the car drivers are much better. Thai driving style is full of tail gating, speeding cars flashing lights to say "don't get in my way", people rushing at 80+ km/h in small villages. Broken break lights are not uncommon. Crazy truck drivers high on yaba, etc...

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18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The foundation is concerned over road traffic deaths during the Loy Krathong celebration this year, he said citing last year’s figures that showed 161 deaths and 8,205 injuries.

No different than any other day of the year, considering they're the most popular vehicle on the road then they will be involved in most accidents.

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