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New Year Death Toll Rises To 365: Thailand


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New Year death toll rises to 365

WATTANA KHAMCHU

THE NATION

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BANGKOK: -- The number of deaths caused by road accidents during the so-called seven dangerous days spanning the New Year holiday period has risen by more than 8 per cent to 365 and the number of accidents has also increased by 2.68 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Every year, the government declares December 27 to January 2 as the "seven dangerous days" in a bid to promote road safety and reduce road casualties at a time when hundreds, if not thousands, of people hit the road during the New Year holidays.

Yet despite the authorities' all-out efforts, only the number of injuries has dropped this year - by 1.36 per cent - and only six out of 77 provinces have not encountered any fatal road accidents during the period. The provinces are Trat, Nakhon Nayok, Phang Nga, Ranong, Nong Khai and Uttaradit.

"We will reward officials in these provinces as a motivational measure," Deputy Interior Minister Chatt Kuldiloke said yesterday.

According to him, as many as 68,314 officials manned 2,350 major checkpoints across the country. More than 4.7 million vehicles were flagged down, and 688,381 offenders punished for violating traffic laws. Of those caught, 202,893 faced legal action for driving without a licence, while 194,759 others were punished for not wearing a crash helmet.

Official statistics show that 24.39 per cent of the fatalities were caused due to the failure to wear a helmet. The other key reasons for deaths were speeding and drunk driving. Nakhon Pathom recorded the highest number of deaths at 18, while Chiang Mai saw the highest number of injured people at 147 during the period.

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-- The Nation 2013-01-04

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The way I read this is that they will reward the officials in the 6 provinces that did not have any fatal accidents during those days, to motivate the others to work harder (cash is king in this country and it might help)...

Good idea, but how can we be sure that they are really telling the truth about fatal accidents?

I think the problem lies with the Thai people, not it's officials, or police... Yes, they might be corrupt, but they are not always allowed to do their jobs also...

RIP to all the people who died, and let us hope that the numbers will go down in the next round of 7 deadly days...

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From the OP interesting reporting "at a time when hundreds, if not thousands, of people hit the road during the New Year holidays". In a few paragraphs below "More than 4.7 million vehicles were flagged down"

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I guess I am from the old school. A success or fairlure of the unit, team, or whatever you want to call it is shared by all members. When you do not meet goals/expetations of the whole, how in the name of justice do you single out a few individuals for a reward?

This probably is a most true refelection on the attitude/thinking of the majority of the people who are out for to benifit themselves/coharts at the expense of the majority.

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Not sure how many check points I passed during the festive period but I never saw 1 vehicle pulled over !!

There was lots of drinking (coffee maybe), reading papers and watching TV but not much else going on...

Can't say I believe that any provinces had no fatal accidents but lets hope it might be true...

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"More than 4.7 million vehicles were flagged down, and 688,381 offenders punished for violating traffic laws. Of those caught, 202,893 faced legal action for driving without a licence"

Nice to know that at least a majority of the drivers out there have a license laugh.png

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Cops stop 4.1 million vehicles @ 100 baht per vehicle = nice payday for the police.

Very easy to make snide accusations from your armchair for which you are not accountable.

Perhaps you'd like to back them up with your name?

I have been stopped the last two nights and saw no evidence of any malfeasance, the officers were polite and doing their job (actually a friend of mine stayed off the road at night because he knew the cops were out so maybe it works.)

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365 ?......1 for every day of the year ,......what a coincidence .......i wonder if thais will think its lucky ? , i wish they would walk more often !.

watch for the next lottery jan 16 any guess what will be the lucky no's? i will give you a clue search the above postwhistling.gif
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It seems that this thread is largely a chance for people to air their prejudices about Thai driving or just reinforce their own superioroity complexes.

the fact is that drivers all over the world havethe same abilities, it's just how this is handled. essentially it's road design and law enforcement that will curb the carnage, not unfopupnded criticisms of drivers based on the fact they are Thai.

If you want to see how other nationalities candrive like idiots too, just spend an afternoon driving around Pattaya and watch the expats join in the fun.

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According to him, as many as 68,314 officials manned 2,350 major checkpoints across the country. More than 4.7 million vehicles were flagged down, and 688,381 offenders punished for violating traffic laws. Of those caught, 202,893 faced legal action for driving without a licence, while 194,759 others were punished for not wearing a crash helmet.

688,381 "punished", which we all know what that means: 500-5,000 baht each. 202,893 "faced legal action" which is around 5,000-20,00 baht each, 194,759 no helmets are 500 baht each.

688,381x3,000(or so) = 2,065,143,000

202,893x12,000(or so) = 2,434,716,000

194,759x 500= 97,379,500

45,972,338,500 baht taken, divided (let's pretend it was divided equally among the cops from the top down, which we all know it doesn't work that way) among the 68,314 officials... is 67,295 and change per officer! Not a bad gig for 7 days.

Yes, I know you guys will probly jump all over me, but I thought it might be fun to see what it all came out to. Nothing more! It's just for fun!!!

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Death toll is up but we are going to reward officials for doing their job... Go figure.

If (though I very much doubt it ) these officials were doing something positive that was responsible for no road deaths in those Provinces, then they should be rewarded, then other Provinces might follow suite.
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I too was stopped at a number of check-points over the New Year period - both on my bike and in my car. I wasn't breaking any laws, and the police were polite, demanded no moneys and wished me a Happy New Year.

Maybe not as many but they should keep these check points going for the whole year - maybe then driving will improve.

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The way I read this is that they will reward the officials in the 6 provinces that did not have any fatal accidents during those days, to motivate the others to work harder (cash is king in this country and it might help)...

Good idea, but how can we be sure that they are really telling the truth about fatal accidents?

I think the problem lies with the Thai people, not it's officials, or police... Yes, they might be corrupt, but they are not always allowed to do their jobs also...

RIP to all the people who died, and let us hope that the numbers will go down in the next round of 7 deadly days...

Yes, RIP to all those people who died, except the dangerous and drunken drivers, they are better off dead, before they kill innocent people as they would do.
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"More than 4.7 million vehicles were flagged down, and 688,381 offenders punished for violating traffic laws. Of those caught, 202,893 faced legal action for driving without a licence"

Nice to know that at least a majority of the drivers out there have a license laugh.png

Not neccessary, that's only the amount that were caught, so they say.
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"Drivers all over the world have the same abilities"?? You mean to say that all of our drivers education in the west is worthless, and that you can just hop into a car and drive as good as the next person?? Is it only the roads that make the bad drivers here? Sure, the roads have been probably designed with out the help of anyone that understands road building, and the police dont understand traffic safty either, but that doesnt take all the responsibility from the driver.

And the other comment about farang driving, yes, after being here for a while, they too can learn to drive like idiots, especially when they are out cruising at night, looking for the best bar, no signals, just slowing to a stop, and when they finally decide to pull over, half the car is left in the road.

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Death toll is up but we are going to reward officials for doing their job... Go figure.

Not sure if that's a good idea but your claim of 'Death toll is up but we are going to reward officials for doing their job' is not really accurate. The officials rewarded are in provinces who haven't had fatalities so their death toll can't have increased. Of course the reason for this could be that those officials did their job whilst those in other provinces they just collected their reward direct from the drivers without bothering about the safety issues. It might be a good idea to penalise those in provinces that had an increase in deaths

I did notice several police at checkpoints riding bikes with their peaked caps instead of helmets so it's little wonder that they are so ineffectual. The problem as I see it is that the police have no idea how to do this job or just don't want to. I've seen driving advice that says 'take care when approaching a checkpoint as bikes are likely to do a u turn to avoid it if they know they are breaking the law'. Whilst checkpoints have their uses you need someone on either side, out of sight to catch those who just turn around. In the UK and I would imagine many other countries police enforce the law all the time, not only when they've parked up for the purpose. They should pull over those they see flouting the law and don't let them ride or drive off after paying a fine whilst committing the same offence.

I would think a lot of the deaths were due to not wearing a seat belt as this seems to be a common occurrence and not wearing one in the back of a car isn't even an offence which show the intelligence of those passing these laws.

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Cops stop 4.1 million vehicles @ 100 baht per vehicle = nice payday for the police.

Very easy to make snide accusations from your armchair for which you are not accountable.

Perhaps you'd like to back them up with your name?

I have been stopped the last two nights and saw no evidence of any malfeasance, the officers were polite and doing their job (actually a friend of mine stayed off the road at night because he knew the cops were out so maybe it works.)

I've seen a few with vehicles being stopped but also many with no work being done or nobody manning them so some good some bad. I also noticed cops wearing helmets flagging down vehicles whilst what looked like senior officers wearing peaked caps instead of helmets riding bikes.

I think a lot of the policing here is pitiful and I would guess anyone trying to do their job properly faces a near difficult task against all the rest.

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