News Forum - Screening for drunk driving to reduce New Year’s roads deaths

[Thaiger]

Drunk driving is a fairly constant problem in Thailand, like many other places worldwide. It’s so prevalent during the holiday season, that Phuket holds an annual road safety campaign known as ‘Seven Days of Danger.’ The campaign is held around the New Year from December 29 to January 4. The government has announced new strict screening of drivers over the holiday period in an attempt to reduce the number of road deaths. The Ministry of Interior and the police are under orders to check drivers to make sure they are following all traffic laws and not under the influence of […]

The story Screening for drunk driving to reduce New Year’s roads deaths as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Soidog]

This whole article is filled with pointless claptrap by authorities and ministers that isn’t worth the effort to breakdown. However, one myth that needs calling out is this. The report states:

Last year, the dangerous New Year’s week brought with it 333 road deaths

I know arithmetic isn’t ministers strong point, but 333/7days = 48(rounded up) And yet the average daily deaths on Thai roads is closer to 63.  So how is this period worse than any other week? No doubt the ministers will claim it’s all down to their hard work and good governance. In reality it’s because people are on holiday and not on the roads as much. If it is down to the good work and governance then what about doing the same for the other 51 weeks of the year and save 5 475 people from death. Total and utter nonsense. 

[Ramanathan.P]

May be election is around the corner, so everyone has to make sure that public who have forgotten them needs to be reminded that these people are still around.....

[Soidog]

As an example of how pointless these campaigns are, and how useless these ministers and officials are, compare these two news articles. The first is from an article in the Bangkok Post dated April 2014, almost 9 years ago: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/404724/lawless-culture-takes-its-toll

In this report the person responsible for road safety said:

Chestha Mosikarat, the director of Disaster and Safety Integrated Management Bureau from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), told Spectrum the DDPM aimed to bring the road accident down to a quarter of its current rate by the end of the current Dars campaign in 2020.

If you take that as it’s written, he aimed to reduce it by 75%. Assuming a mistake in translation, let’s assume he meant a 25% reduction. 

In this second report from 2021 from Sky News 

https://news.sky.com/story/killer-roads-why-thailand-has-one-of-the-worst-death-rates-from-driving-in-the-world-12051841

This same person, the very same person who said the above in 2014 said:

Sentences for dangerous drivers are tough and Thailand is working on a new safety plan which will be launched in 2022  

In this period from 2014 to almost 2023, 9 years, nothing has improved. This person has achieved nothing in regard to raid safety and yet he keeps his job, his salary and his high pension.
 

Forget road standards, quality of lighting, education and all the other excuses for such appalling road fatalities. Start with getting people like this out of office.
 

Nothing has changed in nine years and nothing will change in the next nine years so long as the system of government, patronage and systemic corruption exists. This story is simply not worth the effort to report on.