How can Thailand curb its appalling road fatality rate?

[Ratsima]

Does anyone know why Thai traffic police insist on using checkpoints instead of patrol cars to enforce traffic laws? I grew up in California and we always drove with the knowledge that a police or Highway Patrol officer might be watching. A couple of years back I returned to California upon my father's death. Unbeknownst to me, he had let his car license tag lapse. In the space of a few days I was stopped three times by Highway Patrol officers (all of whom were very understanding) who noticed the expired tag. I can’t imagine something like that ever happening here. How can they hope to enforce the law if they’re not out on the roads checking for violations?

[Nereus]

Does anyone know why Thai traffic police insist on using checkpoints instead of patrol cars to enforce traffic laws?

Yes, good question! I have been here 30 years and only ONCE have I seen the highway police stop an offender. Many times you will see some idiot passing a patrol car. Do that in Australia and even if you are not at fault, they will invent something and stop you.

[nil]

I hardly see any police cars except when they are transporting VIP’s about.

[oakdale160]

This thread is so circular-- Ideas to take care of the carnage, followed by depressing posts saying how things will never change. Eventually, of course, the Chinese will take control and things will change, but not in the lifetime of most of us.

[hhinner]

Autonomous vehicles (including 2 wheelers) should cut the death rate but I'm sure there'll still be casualties. 30 years?

[dundrillin]

Does anyone know why Thai traffic police insist on using checkpoints instead of patrol cars to enforce traffic laws? I grew up in California and we always drove with the knowledge that a police or Highway Patrol officer might be watching. A couple of years back I returned to California upon my father's death. Unbeknownst to me, he had let his car license tag lapse. In the space of a few days I was stopped three times by Highway Patrol officers (all of whom were very understanding) who noticed the expired tag. I can’t imagine something like that ever happening here. How can they hope to enforce the law if they’re not out on the roads checking for violations?

I think BB has summed this up in the past when he stated that the police here wait for the offenders to come to them whereas in the rest of the world the police go looking for them.

[Nereus]

Officers told to get tough on road safety

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... y#cxrecs_s

Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob ordered officials to get tough on road safety violations following a tragic accident which claimed 11 lives in Sa Kaeo province on Sunday.

"It is time to take serious actions against any offender," said the minister. "Penalties include the suspension of a public van company's permit, and the revocation of the violator's driver licence."

While the accident involved a public van -- which Mr Saksayam has been trying to keep on the road despite a regulation passed by the previous government that mandated the decommissioning of vans older than 10 years -- the minister was adamant the accident does not warrant the removal of older vans from the roads.

"Initial investigations show the driver dozed off and veered of the road," he said. "GPS data from the van showed the driver remained within the speed limit."

Mr Saksayam said 72% of accidents involving vans are caused by poor road conditions, before adding that 2.9% of public van accidents were caused by the condition of the van.

That said, he admitted authorities have not done enough to ensure vans and other public vehicles are in a safe working condition.

"I have ordered officials to carry out more inspections to ensure passenger safety," he said.

The minister's order came after a passenger van crashed head on into a 18-wheeled lorry at 4.10am on Sunday in front of Wang Sombun district office.

Eleven people -- five men and six women -- were killed. Among the deceased is the driver of the van, identified as Sansern Jirathongkhan.

The van, which bore a Bangkok registration plate, was almost completely destroyed, and the lorry's bonnet severely damaged. Its driver, along with four injured Lao nationals, are being treated at Wang Sombun Hospital.

A passenger van destroyed after a collision with a lorry in Wang Sombun district of Sa Kaeo province on Sunday. Sawat Ketngam

Activists urge govt to ban old public vans

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... ublic-vans

Policy U-turn risks lives, says network

Activists have banded together to oppose the Transport Ministry allowing old public vans to stay on the road, saying the measure undermines road safety.

More than 30 members of a drink-driving victims network and quality of life improvement group handed an open letter opposing the decision to Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob on Tuesday.

Jessada Yamsabai, head of a network affiliated to the Don't Drive Drunk Foundation, said public vans which are more than 10 years old should be taken off the road and replaced with minibuses by October in accordance with the policy launched by the previous government.

Mr Saksayam last week said the compulsory replacement would no longer stand. Instead, the owners of the vans would have the option of continuing their operations for another two years, providing the vehicles pass a safety check, before switching to the minibuses.

The minister said the economic cost of mandatory replacement would push up fares and cause the operators financial problems.

The network made its stand in the wake of Sunday's passenger van crash in Sa Kaeo which killed 12 Lao migrant workers and their Thai driver. The van carrying them crashed into a lorry in the early hours of Sunday near Wang Sombun hospital.

Mr Jessada insisted that even though the vans are equipped with GPS speed-monitoring systems, some drivers turn off the device and drive at high speeds in order to make as many shuttle rounds as possible.

"The drivers become exhausted and fall asleep at the wheel," he claimed.

Road safety depends largely on the quality of vehicles, according to Mr Jessada.
He said strong and suitably built public vehicles can save commuters' lives in accidents.

Citing research by the Thailand Accident Research Centre, Mr Jessada said minibuses are installed with safety features which enable passengers to escape more easily during emergencies.

"The Transport Ministry should review these public van measures as they're backward," he said.

Kruamart Srijan, coordinator of the quality of life improvement group, said the government must not overlook the importance of using the right type of vehicles to serve passengers.

"The authorities also need to conduct stringent maintenance of public transport vehicles at least every six months," he added.

[Nereus]

Get tough to cut road toll

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... -road-toll

The shockingly high death toll from road accidents in Thailand -- which currently stands at 45 lives lost a day -- attests not only to the grim fact that the government has failed to tackle this chronic problem, but also to the urgent need to overhaul our accident prevention measures.

Figures, released recently by the Road Accident Victims Protection Co, showed that 13,692 people died and 757,010 people were injured in road accidents on Thai roads in the first 10 months of 2019. This means that on average, 45 people die and 2,523 others are injured in accidents on Thai roads every day.

Over the past few decades, Thai governments have tended to toughen up the enforcement of road safety rules only twice a year -- during the New Year and Songkran long holiday periods, during which an exodus of city residents head for the provinces. In fact, the government came up with the phrase "seven dangerous days" to highlight the high casualties reported over these long holiday periods.

However, recent studies have shown that more stringent surveillance actually has very little effect on road casualties. Given the average fatality of 45 a day, over the course of seven ordinary days, theoretically there should have been 315 fatalities. In reality, 392 people died during the seven dangerous days during this year's Songkran holiday period. The high death toll over the past 10 months tells us that weak enforcement of road safety laws pose risks to drivers and passengers' safety, regardless of the time of the year.

A crash on Sept 29, which claimed the lives of more than a dozen students from Si Sa Ket, is a case in point. The number of passengers allowed on the tray of a pickup truck is limited to six, but there were more than half a dozen students seated in the back at the time of the accident. The vehicle somehow managed to pass all traffic checkpoints along the way from Si Sa Ket to Bangkok, with no law enforcement official authorities attempting to intercept the vehicle until it crashed on the outskirts of Bangkok.

The Land Transport Department has said that it is committed to rolling out measures to cut road fatalities to below 10 for every 100,000 people -- a goal which it wants to achieve next year.

Assuming the population stands at 66.4 million, in order to meet the goal, Thailand would need to cut road deaths to 6,640 per year -- and recent figures suggest that the goal is still well beyond reach. According to the World Health Organisation, Thailand ranks eighth in the world in terms of road deaths per 100,000 people.

Among the road safety measures implemented by the LTD include the establishment of more checkpoints for public transport vans, tougher penalties for repeat offenders, and making the installation of GPS trackers on lorries and public transport vehicles mandatory.

That said, the transport minister may find it necessary to consider other ideas -- including raising the speed limit in the overtaking lane to 120 kilometres per hour, an idea that is currently being tested on the Bang Pa-in-Nakhon Sawan expressway. However, given the high number of U-turns on Thai roads, raising the speed limit to 120kph may not be the best idea.

What's more important, however, is cultivating a safe driving attitude, which can be achieved by toughening up the enforcement of road safety laws. The authorities also need to look into other factors, which include sub-standard road design, a lack, (if not complete absence) of road signage, and unguarded railway crossings. Without a comprehensive overhaul which involves both state agencies and the community, Thailand's road safety goals will remain a distant dream.

[Dannie Boy]

You could drive a wedge a mile wide through “what is wrong” with Thai traffic enforcement, however IMO checkpoints have virtually no impact on road safety, all they do is slow down traffic in one short area, the checks they make seem to be very superficial and then the driver is free to carry on speeding (to catch up for the 5 minutes they lost slowing down at the checkpoint). The only thing that will have an impact is a combination of speed cameras and significantly more mobile police patrols, in tandem with much higher fines and/or a penalty points system, whereby after accumulating so many points, you lose your license for a given period. Don’t hold your breath!!

[buksida]

significantly more mobile police patrols, in tandem with much higher fines

That would probably drop the accident rate by half over night. People drive like assholes here because they can get away with it while the police are lurking around at predictable road blocks.

If the police actually worked proactively and patrolled the roads in unmarked cars, pulling over and heavily fining dangerous drivers, they would make a fortune while the drivers would be incentivized not to behave like utter wankers when behind the wheel.

As you say though ... dream on.

[Big Boy]

If the police actually worked proactively and patrolled the roads in unmarked cars, pulling over and heavily fining dangerous drivers, they would make a fortune while the drivers would be incentivized not to behave like utter wankers when behind the wheel.

They don't need to, which is the problem.

1am Sunday morning, I arrived back into Hua Hin in a minibus full of Farang football supporters. As we passed what must have been Makro, we could see a police road block somewhere in the vicinity of Index - quite a distance. How many u-turns or side turnings in that stretch of road? The road was quiet at that time of the morning.

If you're doing anything wrong, why would you continue to the roadblock? Of course, we had done nothing wrong, we continued, our driver was breathalysed, and we carried on. However, there must have been a dozen cars, bikes and trucks waiting on the roadside to be processed. The BIB must have easily caught their quota that night, but Joe Public must be stupid, knowing they are in the wrong, but still driving to the roadblock.

I am the first to say they should be more proactive, but while people offer themselves as sacrificial lambs, why would they?

[buksida]

The BIB must have easily caught their quota that night, but Joe Public must be stupid, knowing they are in the wrong, but still driving to the roadblock.

Never considered it that way - but it brings up another problem ... the quota. There shouldn't be one for highly dangerous driving ... only in Thailand.

[Suua]

Most of the deaths come from motorbike accidents.
Until and unless police start enforcing the laws (therein lies the problem), the carnage will continue.
There are existing laws which, if enforced, would help to protect motorcycle riders.

Such as, 1: must have a drivers license, 2: must be old enough to drive, 3: must wear a helmet, 4: all lights on the cycle must be in working order, 5: cannot drive the wrong way on a road, 6: must obey the speed limit, 7: must not have more than two people on a cycle, 8: must not weave in and out of traffic, 9: must not drink and drive, 10: must not drive through a changing/red traffic light, etc, etc.
Standard good laws exist, they are just never enforced.

Most of this could be achieved with a competent, trained police force,(trained by a first world police force would be the quickest and best way).
But can you imagine how long this will take?

[buksida]

Good points though I think a bit of 'self policing' would also help when it comes to two wheels.

Vietnam has a larger population with more motorbikes and worse road conditions, yet their death toll is substantially less than Thailand's and it is nothing to do with the police as you hardly see them. In Thailand the police are everywhere, yet totally ineffective.

[Big Boy]

I agree 100% that more policing is required, but the penalties for non-compliance need to be more of a deterrent also. This is a diagram I saw recently - it looks about right to me.

Keeping fines low because the average Thai doesn't have much money is absolutely no deterrent.