Current road-safety measures are failing

Casualties from road accidents during the long New Year holiday have decreased this year when compared to the previous year. There were 26 fewer deaths and 227 fewer injuries during the seven-day period in which the data were collected.

However, that decline was still far from satisfactory for the government, according to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, because “every life is important”. 

He called on relevant state agencies to perform their duty to the fullest and said he expected them to do better during the Songkran festival in April. This practice of publicising the number of road casualties during long public holidays, particularly New Year and Songkran, has continued for years. 

The goal was to raise public awareness about road safety and encourage drivers to be more careful. But the authorities remain unable to curb the number of road accidents and the high rate of casualties.

During the “seven dangerous days” from December 30 to January 5 this year there were 2,997 accidents, in which 341 people were killed and 3,117 injured, according to the Interior Ministry’s Road Safety Centre. This was slightly down from last year’s tally of 367 killed and 3,344 injured in 3,174 accidents.

In fact, Thailand has one of the highest rates in road fatalities in the world. With 38 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants per year, the Kingdom ranks third in the world, just behind the African countries of Eritrea and Libya, at 48.4 and 40.5 deaths, respectively, according to the World Health Organisation’s Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013.

About 26,000 traffic deaths occur in Thailand every year. That means road accidents cause about one death every hour. There are also hundreds of thousands of injured victims, many of them permanently crippled or disabled. This is equivalent to casualties in a moderate-scale war.

A significant portion of the country’s resources is spent treating the injured. And there is a great loss of opportunity and economic loss for losing a large segment of workforce in road accidents, not to mention the many thousands who are maimed. More than 52 per cent of road-accident victims this year were of working age, according to the Road Safety Centre.

Most of the accidents during the past New Year holiday were caused by speeding, drunk driving and abrupt changes of traffic lanes.

Road safety is a major problem that needs to be tackled effectively to reduce the number of casualties and the economic burden on the country. The traffic law should be enforced strictly in order to reduce speeding and drunk driving – which have perennially been the major causes. Speeding and drunk driving should be discouraged to an extent that is effective enough to bring down road accidents.

More efforts should also be made in raising public awareness about safety. 

Children should be taught about road-safety measures and adults should be reminded of them.

During the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the prime minister instructed the government agencies involved to gather more information in order to find solutions to reduce road casualties during Songkran.

We hope the authorities will be able to perform better. However, members of the public, particularly motorists, also have to coordinate and contribute to road safety – for a better result for the country.