Safe, sane driving campaign urged

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ROAD ACCIDENTS

Safe, sane driving campaign urged
Published: 18/08/2011 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: News

Road safety experts have called on the government to launch more safe driving campaigns to help reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in collisions, particularly motorcyclists.

Nationwide, 124,855 people were killed in road accidents during the past 10 years, said speakers at a road safety seminar held by the Public Health Ministry yesterday. The costs of the road deaths to society is 230 billion baht a year, equal to 2.8% of the country's GDP.

Thanapong Jinvong, manager of the Road Safety Group (RSG), said the number of people killed in traffic accidents during the past decade was equal to the amount of people killed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, so more action and campaigns should be implemented.

Mr Thanapong said a RSG road safety study had found 4,384 people were involved in traffic collisions every day and that 11,386 were left disabled from injuries sustained in those accidents every year.

Almost half of the disabled were male breadwinners.

Motorbikes are involved in the majority of traffic accidents, particularly young drivers aged 15-24.

About 16.7 million motorcycles are registered with the Land Transport Department and they accounted for 62% of all registered vehicles in 2009.

Kunnawee Kanitpong, a researcher with the Asian Institute of Technology, who worked on the road safety report, said the severity of road accidents was also on the rise due to faster driving and bigger, wider roads.

Motorcycle accidents accounted for most deaths during holidays and festivals in upper northeastern provinces than any other region.

Most road accidents were the result of high-speed driving, Ms Kunnawee said.

The maximum legal speed on urban roads is 80km/h and 90km/h on suburban roads.

Supreeda Adulyanon, deputy manager of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, said most accidents involving drunk drivers were also motorcycle-related.

He added that failure to wear a helmet can lead to death or serious injury.

Srisombat Pornprasit, deputy chief of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, said the agency would push the government to develop plans to announce a decade of road safety to reduce the number of traffic deaths to less than 10 per 100,000 people by 2021.

Mr Srisombat said the department would launch a campaign this year to encourage motorcycle riders and passengers to wear safety helmets as part of a national policy on road accident reduction, which was announced in January.

[Jamaw]

It is a well written article but sadly will fall on deaf ears. The burden that this plays on Thai society of all levels is massive. The hidden costs are an invisible tax! In contrast the cost of prevention is by far an investment but that is not in the Thai state of mind!

I've mentioned the successful formula for road safety, the 3 'E's, Education, Engineering and Enforcement. Fitting high risk vehicles such as delivery trucks, vans and buses with IVMS would be a start. This must be followed up with specialist training which is not available in Thailand and there lies another problem, the reluctance to accept outside help in contrast to Cambodia, Vietnam and many other countries in the region.

[Jamaw]

As Thailand has not signed up to the UN/WHO charter its reports are not taken seriously. I've mentioned before that the UK/WHO stipulate that any death that has resulted from an RTA within 30 days of the incident is recognised as an RTA death but Thailand doesn't abide by this. It is therefore estimated that the deaths on Thailand's roads are at least 15% more than the official figures.

Add to that poor investigations, reporting and research, an example is this ignorant comment that would never be accepted internationally....'' Kunnawee Kanitpong, a researcher with the Asian Institute of Technology, who worked on the road safety report, said the severity of road accidents was also on the rise due to faster driving and bigger, wider roads.'' It is down to poor training, weak engineering (traffic management) and weak, if not corrupt enforcement!