Letter about injury coverage for people in taxi accidents raised worrying concerns

Francois Dore’s letter on Feb 18th should give all pause for their personal health care and safety while travelling in Thailand, whether you are an expat, tourist or business traveller. Not only is the risk of being involved in an accident high (1 in 100, seems conservative, but still high risk when considering one’s health & safety) but the fact that the operator may have little of no legal responsibility to cover your medical bills if they are at fault is alarming. Not to mention the not entirely rare cases of conflicts and altercations involving passengers and taxi drivers, occasionally resulting in fatal attacks.
If the other driver is at fault, they must have at least the government minimum Por Lor Baw coverage for covering cost of injuries to non-at fault passengers. Taxis at fault are obligated to cover Bt30,000 for their passengers, and wow, that could get used up in just a few hours in a critical care situation, not to mention days or weeks of rehabilitation and follow up care, lost employment or work days, etc.
Mr Dore warned: “Only Bt30,000? Think about that on your next trip?” and that in due course, personal health insurance and/or travel insurance coverage are vital to those travelling and staying in Thailand. Some health insurance policies may not cover all injuries sustained outside of your home country (ie. on a motorcycle, if not using seat belt, etc), so longer-term care and follow-up treatment may not be covered at all once returning to your own country, unless national health coverage applies, although that is often slower to arrange and of lower quality than private treatment. Caveat Emptor!
Niels Jeffreys