News Forum - Road of sorrow: Scottish man becomes latest victim of Thailand’s perilous roads

[cowslip]

19 minutes ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

I would suggest it has everything to do with helmets. 

Of Thailand's extremely high road fatalities, about 3/4 are from motorbikes. 

Only about 50% of riders and 20% of passengers wear helmets. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/thailand-roads-deadly-traffic-accidents-class-inequality-a9071696.html

Wearing of helmets in Thailand is improving as is the quality of helmets ut the percentage of wearers varies immensely from region to region so that is largely down to local enforcement.

It is amazing how untrained and ill-informed te police are - I've spoken to many who think that length or journey or speed is relevant to whether or not your should wear a hat.

Helmets protect about are between 20 and 47% effective at saving lives lost through head injuries.  A helmet cannot save you from a direct blow - it only works against glancing blows to the head. THere are of course many other injuries that motorcyclists get from falling off a bike. You v=can receive a fatal head injury whilst at the standstill - imagine just falling over form the height of an M?C and being =unable to put your hands out to break the fall.

Helmets undoubtedly would make a big difference and now there is a trend towards helmets being "fashionable" on motorcycles.

One thing that many overlook in all RTIs is the incredibly poor emergency services in Thailand - the "golden hour" for victim survival just doesn't exist in Thailand.

 

The roads themselves are also lethal for any vehicle that has for one reason or another lost control.

 

[RNikoley]

You have high fatality primarily because you have a high accident rate. The cause of high accident rates are just as I stated, not lack of wearing helmets.

Helmets have nothing to do with the cause of accidents. Their purpose is to mitigate them when they happen. Their effectiveness is estimated at 29% for preventing death and 67% for preventing serious brain injury. Not bad. Advisable to wear. (Of course, what passes for "helmets" in Thailand...another subject.)

A superior strategy is first to mitigate the hazard, just as modern 1st world countries do. Helmet wearing them becomes icing on the cake, so to speak. It's like treating symptoms instead of disease.

... If I slip on some wet rocks, fall off a cliff and die, not having a parachute isn't the cause of the accident, though it could have prevented my death had I been casually wearing one. Even not having a railing isn't the cause of the accident. Even having a railing that was defective and broke isn't the cause of the accident (though that's the most proximate thing that could have mitigated the consequences of the accident). The cause of the accident is some measure of carelessness on my part, combined with poor surface conditions.

[Marc26]

9 hours ago, RNikoley said:

I find it humorous how farang come here, live amongst only other farang, in farang areas, and they're all such law-abiding citizens when the 70% of the population that lives rural scoffs and laughs at their virtue-signalling.

 

How is it virtue signaling to do things the proper way?(as you did yourself in areas where you need to)

And who cares if a bunch of uneducated Thais scoff at you for being properly licensed while they ignorantly don't follow the law??

[Marc26]

9 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

My wife has never held a bike license and refuses to get one. Could be she is shy on having to go do the written test and pass it so not going to ever happen. For the vehicle she has a for life license as nothing ever has to be done since she got it when young. But for me and the kids I stress that we have bike and vehicle with no ifs and or butts. Just having the license is a good feeling in itself. I used to ride without a bike license and got to the point of tired of avoiding check points or having to pay the few times I really had to.

As it should be........

Not having a go at your wife particularly, but just because your wife(again not yours) has been doing something doesn't mean your kids or yourself should follow suit

 

We are there to break them out of their sort of "uneducated" ways

Sorry I didn't know how else to word that

 

 

In the US/Canada I would call it "white trash" ways

[cowslip]

2 hours ago, RNikoley said:

You have high fatality primarily because you have a high accident rate.

THis is not actually correct.

THe reported collision rate over Song Khran is the same as the UK collision rate - yet the death rate per collision  is much higher.

What happens during the course of the collision is what affects the death rates.

 

Most crashes are the result of human error - this is a constant in road safety and cannot be reduced -  it is inevitable so road safety is about dealing with the results of human error. (BTW - homan error is not the result of the subjective phrase "bad driving")

Some roads are more likely to have crashes and thereinafter the Thai system lets people down. Helmets can of course affect the death rates - but only to the percentage of effectiveness (wearing one is the first point of efficacy)

Other factors like the nature of the road, emergency services all have a bearing on death rates.

The basic idea behind road safety is to "protect" all road users - this is achieved through various measures - most of which thailand doesn't do properly.

As you can see, the statistics for the efficacy of helmets varies immensely and of course in Thailand the quality of helmets varies tremendously too.

Mitigation is the main missing concern in Thailand 

Road design

traffic engineering

Enforcement

Vehicle quality

Education are all major failings but also emergency services and subsequent evaluation are quite appalling.

Until Thailand addresses ALL of these issues there will be no significant improvement - just addressing one or two issues partially is not enough.