New helmet laws introduced as fatality rate soars

[Admin]

New helmet laws introduced as fatality rate soars
By Pongphon Sarnsamak
The Nation 2010-12-14

Public Health Ministry regions across the country yesterday were declared compulsory helmet-wearing zones to promote safety and reduce fatalities caused by motorcycle accidents, said Deputy Minister Pannasiri Kullanartsiri.

The move is aimed at promoting the Decade of Action for Road Safety - from 2011 to 2020 - after reports indicated 11,000 people were killed in road accidents last year.

About 6,000 of these fatalities were motorcycle riders not wearing helmets to protect themselves from brain injuries.

Pannasiri said the ministry had set a 50-per-cent target to reduce the injury and fatality rate from road accidents by 2020. Encouraging motorcycle riders and passengers to wear helmets was the most important action to reduce this casualty rate.

All government office areas nationwide should be designated as compulsory helmet-wearing zones, he said. According to Public Health Ministry records in 2009, 11,751 people - or about 30 per day - were killed in road accidents. About 6,000 of these cases were motorcyclists.

The record also showed that more than 700,000 people were taken to hospital with motorcycle injuries, leaving the government with a Bt2-billion annual medical bill for their care.

Half this expenditure went towards patients suffering from head injuries.

[isanbirder]

This is Thailand all over... make a regulation, and you think you've solved the problem.  The helmet law is simply a device to enable the police to solicit bribes.

[buriramboy]

This is Thailand all over... make a regulation, and you think you've solved the problem.  The helmet law is simply a device to enable the police to solicit bribes.

So what are you offering? cancel the law to wear helmet?

Helmet is a life saving device just as much as safety belt in the car.

[isanbirder]

 I'm not offering anything... I'm just implying that what is important is more genuine enforcement and fewer 'pronouncements'.  Phitsanulok and, I believe, Nongkhai are towns where the enforcement is good;  why can't the others do as well?  Often because the police are simply not interested unless they can make a buck out of it.

[boloa]

I think the Police are hotting up in  most towns now but the problem is everybody knows the police stop at 5 pm so after 5 pm it seems OK to ride without a crash helmet !!!! Also in the rural area's nobody wears one unless the local Police have a road block but then most of the locals turn round as they have no tax and insurance anyway .
Even our local village Policeman never wears one,so who do you expect the local too,also he lets his 10 year old son ride around the village and has even bought him a motorbike.!!

[Dave the Dude]

Getting out of the small village mentality, the police are now hot on this and you will never see riders or passengers without a helmet in large cities. I see there is a 500b fine for having three people on a bike now in Pattaya.

Having riden big bikes for most of my life, I see that there is no fear of dying, in the way that riders behave over here. Helmets are only worn because it means less fines and not because they are at all interested in safety.

[TBWG]

Fraid a 99 baht helmet is unlikely to offer any worthwhile protection and none at all to the baby being cradled in one arm!

Risk assessment is not something that features in most Thai lives.

But one has to start somewhere!

TBWG

 

[Geordie Boy]

This is where we should be looking

http://en.handicapinternational.be/The-road-safety-a-global-priority_a728.html

[Admin]

Fraid a 99 baht helmet is unlikely to offer any worthwhile protection and none at all to the baby being cradled in one arm!

Risk assessment is not something that features in most Thai lives.

But one has to start somewhere!

TBWG

 

Agree.

Also I think its more to EDUCATE people than enforcement.

[boloa]

Fraid a 99 baht helmet is unlikely to offer any worthwhile protection and none at all to the baby being cradled in one arm!

Risk assessment is not something that features in most Thai lives.

But one has to start somewhere!

TBWG

 

Agree.

Also I think its more to EDUCATE people than enforcement.

Spot on.....I have been saying for years that the Local Police should go to schools to explain why the kids should wear a crash helmets on they way to and from school. Most big local schools have a Policeman by the school gates in the morning and afternoon but kids with no helmets or ever 3 up are just ignored .Education is deficiently the way to go!!!

[Geordie Boy]

หมวกกันน็อค is not the total answer but simply a sticking plaster and a feel good for the politicians. IMHO boloa has the answer Education. 

[Prakhonchai Nick]

Education in schools re riding bicycles and motorbikes is necessary., There's plenty of time available if they would only cut down on teaching about Buddha and the royals!

Couple this with strict compliance by the police, meaningful penalties, and where the family are to blame (either by letting junior ride the family bike or worse actually buying junior a bike)  dish out heavy penalties to them.

Never mind the proclaimed inability to pay hefty fines. NOBODY ever needs to pay a fine if they don't break the law!

[isanbirder]

Of course education, plus strict control of the sale of helmets (to make sure they are adequate), plus enforcement... especially at schools.  It's no use telling the schoolkids they must wear a helmet, mustn't ride until they're of legal age, and mustn't ride three or more on a bike... and then the local police take no notice if they break all these rules.

[candy]

          MY FIRST POST AND ONLY BECAUSE I CAN'T BELIEVE THE NERVE OF SOME EX-PATS.  ''SPEND LESS TIME TEACHING ABOUT THE ROYALS AND BUDDA''.
          GO AND CRAWL BACK UNDER YOUR STONE . IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THERE ARE MANY BUSES,TRAINS AND FLIGHTS LEADING ELSEWHERE.
           I CAN'T STAND THOSE WHO BELIEVE THEY ARE SUPERIOR TO OTHERS.

[fox]

wearing helmet is one thing but wearing a SAFE helmet is another thing.
most helmets the locals are wearing aren't safe and dangerous in the event of accident crash.

see this one.