THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Breaking road rules 

Breaking road rules 

Despite our uniformed officials trying to concoct special zones, road checks and holiday clampdowns, there is a reality to road use in the countryside that has remained unchanged for 10 years.

I have just sat for four hours on the side of a country highway running through a village, alternately reading a book and watching traffic at a spot where police presence is virtually zero, and this is how it looks: 
 Overloaded pickups with four-metre-high loads, 22-wheel truck trailers carrying 
50-tonne loads of sand and six-wheel rice trucks all just blast their horns and pass through the “city limits” without slowing. Fifteen-year-old boys with no licence race each other home when school ends, while girls ride three on a bike with cellphones in hand and laugh at the fun. Big-bike groups coming down the mountain accelerate from their “slow” of 80kph, and  specially adapted racing pickups try to stick with them. No one wears a helmet, many bikes have no licence plates and several drivers are too young be legal. 
All this in a village with a school, kindergarten, shops, garages, food stalls and a busy marketplace – but no speed-limit signs or speed bumps. This is Thailand’s real up-country world of traffic use and abuse. Of course, there is a high 
death rate.
Lungstib

nationthailand