From today's Bangkok Post:
Drivers to get health checks
APIRADEE TREERUTKUARKUL
Drivers of public transport vehicles will from now on be required to undergo annual health check-ups.
Deputy Public Health Minister Wicharn Meenchainant yesterday said the Public Health Ministry would ask for cooperation from the Land Transport Department to implement the measure for health and road safety purposes.
Holders of public driving licences are usually required to have their health checked annually when extending their permits. However, this rule has been much neglected, he said.
According to a survey by the National Health System Research Institute, a quarter of 500 public drivers spent over eight hours driving a day. Up to 21% hardly exercise at all while 20% had high blood pressure. More than half of them were smokers and drinkers.
He believed the health measure would cut the number of road deaths - around 16,000 per year - in the country.
The Public Health Ministry will provide free health check-ups for 100,000 public bus drivers to diagnose health problems such as high blood pressure, asthma, respiratory problems and other chronic diseases.
Both drivers and passengers were exposed to health risks because they were in closed environments that made them susceptible to the spread of disease.
Any chance of these tests getting extended to minibus drivers?
Drivers to get health checks
They should do random tests on all bus and truck drivers. I have spent a lot of time travelling up and down from Surin to HH and we have done a lot of this at night, i never relax, you see so many accidents and drivers swerving all over the road with fatigue. It's a well known fact that a lot of these drivers take Yaba and other stimulents aswell as RedBull type drinks.
If you really want to protect everyone's health and safety they should fit all these vehcles with tacographs, that record the driving hours and speeds, these are open for regular inspections and have been used in the U.K for 25 years before that they had a log book system that was wide open for abuse. In the U.K these drivers can only drive 9 hours a day and 10 hours twice a week and you have to have minimum 11 hour rest period, in Thailand it's just ridiculous these mini buses travel down from Surin drop us in HH and then they drive strait back again, another 10-11 hours.
Kendo.
If you really want to protect everyone's health and safety they should fit all these vehcles with tacographs, that record the driving hours and speeds, these are open for regular inspections and have been used in the U.K for 25 years before that they had a log book system that was wide open for abuse. In the U.K these drivers can only drive 9 hours a day and 10 hours twice a week and you have to have minimum 11 hour rest period, in Thailand it's just ridiculous these mini buses travel down from Surin drop us in HH and then they drive strait back again, another 10-11 hours.
Kendo.
Kendo,
I've done the return trip from Nang Rong to BKK many times. There was no way I was asleep on the bus unless I was totally sparko - not that it would have made any difference in the event of a crash.
No-one's going to enforce this initiative over here though - unfortunately. If I'm on a public bus I just stare out of the window with my can of Chang and hope for the best.
I've done the return trip from Nang Rong to BKK many times. There was no way I was asleep on the bus unless I was totally sparko - not that it would have made any difference in the event of a crash.
No-one's going to enforce this initiative over here though - unfortunately. If I'm on a public bus I just stare out of the window with my can of Chang and hope for the best.