News Forum - Thailand improves crosswalks, other safety measures after fatal pedestrian accident

[Thaiger]

Following the fatal crash where an off-duty police officer ran his Ducati into an eye doctor walking along the zebra crossing, Thais are pointing out traffic violations and officials are making changes to reduce traffic accidents involving pedestrians. Some changes include repainting crosswalks and roads to increase crosswalk visibility and encourage drivers to reduce their speed. The woman was walking across Bangkok’s Phaya Thai Raod by the Bhumirajanagarindra Kidney Institute Hospital when the officer hit her with his Ducati Monster motorcycle, killing her. The officer enter monkhood after the accident, but was expelled due to criminal charges. He faces seven […]

The story Thailand improves crosswalks, other safety measures after fatal pedestrian accident as seen on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

[mickkotlarski]

Strange how a member of law enforcement was himself a perpetrator. 

Paint the pedestrian crossing in all the colours of the rainbow but if rules aren't adhered to the paint jobs will mean precious little and accident fatalities will remain.  

[Graham]

The rules are already there, Thailand needs to educate and enforce the rules before there will be any change, do they teach children about road safety in schools, probably not !

[HolyCowCm]

Just like everything here as in proactive until out of the public eye and forgot. Somethings will never change. 

[anarchofarmer]

Just painting on the road means little to people who have no idea (or interest) what they mean! We already have 50kpm road signs before schools - ignored: continuous single and double lines (even in bright yellow to make them more visible) - ignored: red and white pavement markings for no stopping - ignored: etc, etc. No education and no enforcement! When I did my Thai driving test one sat at a video game computer with multiple choice questions which I kept getting wrong! They got them from the Philippines, where they drive on the wrong side of the road! They just kept telling me to try again until I memorised all the wrong answers! My favorite was: when not to drive - after a few beers was acceptable, the "correct" answer was: "when you feel a heart attack coming on"!!!

[Marble-eye]

I once got a right roasting off my wife for stopping at a pedestrian crossing in Pattaya. We were on a motorbike/scooter and I stopped to allow some pedestrians to cross and cars and bikes were just flying past us and my wife shouting "are you trying to get us killed". Never again will I stop and that is just for the safety of the people trying to cross the road.

The best thing they could do is to erase all crossings as it just gives the pedestrians a false sense of security especially tourists who don't realise that laws here are just meant to be ignored.

Here is a perfect example of pedestrians crossing as a motorbike cop is totally oblivious to what is going on around him. :Courtesy Richard Barrows on Twitter

[Travisa]

A cop here on a Ducati.  Enters monkhood after killing another person.  Education on cross paths here…what’s an education????  This same story with different people involved will appear again in a week.   

[Grant]

Grant from Samroiyot

Crosswalks in Thailand!

Education in Television ads should be implemented on all traffic rules! As Thai drivers are the worst in the world and many do not have a license!

Driving for most Thais, is get there ASAP and disregard rules and have no respect for other drivers!!

[Guest1]

Some changes include repainting crosswalks and roads to increase crosswalk visibility and encourage drivers to reduce their speed.

And will they change the view of the law enforcer, to road violations?

[Grant]

I have stopped to give way for pedestrians or other Vehicles on many occasions and have then been astonished as motorcycles overtake my car and nearly run over the pedestrians I have given way to!

Also other cars?

Its a crazy nightmare on Thai roads and more has to be done to teach these arrogant riders and drivers to follow the law!

The other gripe is Motorcycles and cars driving the wrong way on busy roads !!

Most countries would display this behaviour on the front page of a newspaper or it would make the TV news, if you found a car doing this??

Here in Thailand it seems to be the norm and tolerated!

[Guest1]

  On 1/26/2022 at 11:29 AM, anarchofarmer said:

No education and no enforcement!

Expand  

This is the problem, right! Not enforcing the rules, or better, just enforcing 'em every now and then (fear, to teach people, and to loose this income source permanently, perhaps?), is not changing anything about drivers doing!

[Prosaap]

They do a great job renovating the side walks in pattaya there i a huge hole every 10 meter its open for months now  forse the pedestrians walk on the road i ques  thats thai style start not finish and make sure you do only half the job 

[Vince]

Great news. Sad it had to take the high profile loss of life but it's exactly the same way here in my city thousands of miles from Thailand. 

Innocent pedestrians and bicyclists have had to die before more bike lanes and improved enforcement happened. 

I would love to see Thailand be a leader in pedestrian and bicyclist safety. 

No more Thais or visitors need to be injured or killed by very preventable street accidents. 

[Grumpish]

They are pedestrian crossings?

[Vince]

  On 1/26/2022 at 2:26 PM, Guest1 said:

This is the problem, right! Not enforcing the rules, or better, just enforcing 'em every now and then (fear, to teach people, and to loose this income source permanently, perhaps?), is not changing anything about drivers doing!

Expand  

I live in a city with a high pedestrian fatality rate (per capita) and the police aren't accused of brown envelopes as a result..

My city is nowhere near Thailand. 

They simply are told to prioritize other things.

So why is brown envelopes and corruption always the explanation for everything? 

Police do the job they are told to do.

Usually :-) 

[Guest1]

  On 1/26/2022 at 4:26 PM, Vince said:

I live in a city with a high pedestrian fatality rate (per capita) and the police aren't accused of brown envelopes as a result..

My city is nowhere near Thailand. 

They simply are told to prioritize other things.

So why is brown envelopes and corruption always the explanation for everything? 

Police do the job they are told to do.

Usually :-) 

Expand  

Yes, and IN Thailand, the station chief "priorities" the jobs. Helmets on tourists today, general driving license check on all tomorrow.  Aside that you may be unaware, that the Thai-police is legally getting a cut of the fines.

Not entirely unaware, perhaps, because of the Joe Ferrari story, getting bonuses for "finding" illegal cars, but this system goes even down to the fine for not wearing a helmet.

It is not absolutely clear, how much they get, but some years ago there was a report, that it is in the range of 10-30% of it. Getting in the station "bonus-box" and is shared at the end of the month.

Which, on Phuket, was always the reason, for quarterly high activities on road checkpoints and such. Aside the "usual" end/beginning of the month fine collecting!

[Vince]

  On 1/26/2022 at 4:37 PM, Guest1 said:

Yes, and IN Thailand, the station chief "priorities" the jobs. Helmets on tourists today, general driving license check on all tomorrow.  Aside that you may be unaware, that the Thai-police is legally getting a cut of the fines.

Not entirely unaware, perhaps, because of the Joe Ferrari story, getting bonuses for "finding" illegal cars, but this system goes even down to the fine for not wearing a helmet.

It is not absolutely clear, how much they get, but some years ago there was a report, that it is in the range of 10-30% of it. Getting in the station "bonus-box" and is shared at the end of the month.

Which, on Phuket, was always the reason, for quarterly high activities on road checkpoints and such. Aside the "usual" end/beginning of the month fine collecting!

Expand  

I don't doubt everything you say is true. 

Now in my city, without any of that, we have the same problem: high pedestrian fatalities. 

Is it also corruption? 

[Marc26]

  On 1/26/2022 at 4:26 PM, Vince said:

I live in a city with a high pedestrian fatality rate (per capita) and the police aren't accused of brown envelopes as a result..

My city is nowhere near Thailand. 

They simply are told to prioritize other things.

So why is brown envelopes and corruption always the explanation for everything? 

Police do the job they are told to do.

Usually :-) 

Expand  

You live in an America city with a high pedestrian fatality rate?

I honestly didn't think that was much or a thing, relatively 

[Vince]

  On 1/26/2022 at 4:48 PM, Marc26 said:

You live in an America city with a high pedestrian fatality rate?

I honestly didn't think that was much or a thing, relatively 

Expand  

America or Sweden or Pretoria, it's not in Thailand. Same problem. Is it the same cause? 

Do I need to go to my local police station and offer up some money to make fatalities go down? 

[Soidog]

  On 1/26/2022 at 4:48 PM, Marc26 said:

You live in an America city with a high pedestrian fatality rate?

I honestly didn't think that was much or a thing, relatively 

Expand  

It’s not. He’s just trolling around. Put the silly boy on ignore and continue to contribute positively as you often do

[Spacelord]

As most Thais drive unconsciously, it is unlikely that road painting will have any impact. Thailand already has all the same road rules that most other countries have. What they don't have is any ENFORCEMENT. In 17 years of x-country driving her I have NEVER seen a cop making a traffic stop for road rules violations. This Royal Thai Police abbrogtion of law enforcement is THE problem in Thailand.

[King Cotton]

  On 1/27/2022 at 2:18 AM, Spacelord said:

As most Thais drive unconsciously, it is unlikely that road painting will have any impact. Thailand already has all the same road rules that most other countries have. What they don't have is any ENFORCEMENT. In 17 years of x-country driving her I have NEVER seen a cop making a traffic stop for road rules violations. This Royal Thai Police abrogation (spelling edit) of law enforcement is THE problem in Thailand.

Expand  

Hear, hear, @Spacelord . . . couldn't have put it better myself. And your debut post, too, so thanks for that and welcome to Thaiger Talk!

[Farang123]

Best thing is to probably erase all crosswalks/zebra crossings for a set period to allow an element of retraining for pedestrians and road users as they provide a false sense of security.

Then massive re-education concentrating on speed within built-up areas; where to park (not in front of the crosswalk) and not to overtake approaching one.

Then repaint with zig-zags and enforce parking on the zig-zags with real fines.

Actually, ignore all the above. Start by fixing the ineffective police force. We want to see police stopping vehicles for violations and fining appropriately like in the rest of the world.