News Forum - Thailand second most dangerous place in the world to drive

[Rookiescot]

2 hours ago, Khunwilko said:

Sorry but I have driven extensively both in the UK (up to 90000 in year) and for 20 years in Thailand. You are confusing confirmation bias with Reality.

The problem is your term " like your average Thai in Scotland" - you are trying to say the Scotland is a norm - which it isn't. Driving and road safety are to do with the whole driving environment and you need to adapt to new environments - which as a competent driver you should be able to do. 

"Average Thai" is a subjective (and racist) generalisation. In reality Thai drivers have spent years honing their driving skills in Thailand and (apart from me) have driven much further than most foreigners and consequently are much more used to the condiotns in Thailand. How they would adapt to driving in Scotland is impossible to say as we don't know if they are any more adaptable than your self. They would probably find Scottish driving incomprehensible unless they were competent drivers - but to suggest as a race they couldn't adapt would be foolhardy.

So what you are saying is driving standards are far lower in Thailand but they are used to it.

Thanks for the confirmation.

BTW its not racist to say Thai driving standards are far lower than those of other countries. 

Its just a fact.

[astro]

17 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

BTW its not racist to say Thai driving standards are far lower than those of other countries. 

Its just a fact.

It's just an opinion - a prejudiced one, just because they don't drive like what you're used to.

[LuckyStrike]

Second? pffft. Come on Thailand. First place is in sight.

[cowslip]

58 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

So what you are saying is driving standards are far lower in Thailand but they are used to it.

Thanks for the confirmation.

BTW its not racist to say Thai driving standards are far lower than those of other countries. 

Its just a fact.

I'd love to hear how you came to that conclusion - I think you are just trying to say that black is white because it doesn't agree with your hypothesis.

You don't even appear to have a grasp on what a "fact" is - but a sweeping subjective generalisation about a nationality can vary much be construed as racist.

As I've said before if you think you are going to understand road safety by restricting you view to the subjective and prejudiced perception of "bad driving", you are barking up the wrong tree.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Khunwilko

[cowslip]

2 hours ago, S2k said:

According to Zutobi's own data,

it's not their own data

[cowslip]

 

Most countries in western Europe had per 100k death figures comparable to those in Thailand today.

Traffic deaths per 100 000 inhabitants of France fell gradually from 32.6 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants in 1970 to 5.4 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants in 2015.

In Scotland there were nearly 18 deaths per 100 k in 1970 – this has reduced to  about 4 currently how do you think that happened?

in the United States have decreased from 28 deaths per 100,000 in 1970

to around  11.7 deaths in 2018 – in fact the US has done considerably worse than Europe. One problem for the US has been a state-by-state approach to road safety.

 

The one factor that all these countries have in common is the adoption of road safety policies based on the Safe System….. 

All these countries have had a massive increase in vehicle numbers and km travelled yet the figures have dropped. Thailand on the other hand has seen a gradual rise almost every year except for Covid years.

In many ways they are in a better position to deal with road safety as they have others’ lessons to learn from but instead the authorities for 3 decades have stubbornly resisted what is in effect a public health issue and show little interest in practical ways of solving the problem. They continue to build poorly designed roads and traffic systems, poor emergency services, poor education and an untrained corrupt police service. Every year politicians make noises about road safety they ignore the massive loss of life and the damage this does to the economy in favour of cheap untrammelled development for their industrial sector. (121 Billion BHT or 0.8% of Thailand GDP.). Essentially their policy is a loss leader that they will end up paying for in the end as the country has to absorb deaths and injuries equivalent to an army art war.

 

The unproductive attitude of the “blame game” – accusing the country of being “bad drivers” and other subjective insults has clearly been unproductive for the last 3 decades – it is not until there is a massive sea-change in government policy that any significant change will take place.

 

[oldschooler]

Thailand murders 17,000 kids aged 10-19 every year by allowing their stupid parents to put them untrained / unready on small motorbikes with no police law enforcement ( bike confiscation, licenses, bike condition).

Made worse by stupidly high Govt luxury tax on many new cars which hold their value quite well for 5-7 years so 95% young Thais can’t afford cars.

Arab countries far worse in cars BUT no motorbikes pushing up the road death statistics.

Then we come to the insane fatalistic inconsiderate substance- consuming Culture resulting in low driving competence. 

[Rookiescot]

8 hours ago, Khunwilko said:

I'd love to hear how you came to that conclusion - I think you are just trying to say that black is white because it doesn't agree with your hypothesis.

You don't even appear to have a grasp on what a "fact" is - but a sweeping subjective generalisation about a nationality can vary much be construed as racist.

As I've said before if you think you are going to understand road safety by restricting you view to the subjective and prejudiced perception of "bad driving", you are barking up the wrong tree.

Enough with the race card. Pointing out many Thais drive like idiots is not racist. Its a fact we are all fully aware of.