Some perspective on the huge numbers involved
From
The Nation 16 March 2013
Up to 26,000 people are killed in road accidents every year in Thailand, which puts the country in the 6th spot in terms of road casualties. Of those killed, up to 70 or 80 per cent are motorcyclists or their passengers.
These statistics were released at a press conference by Vice Interior Minister Silapachai Jarukasemratana yesterday.
He told the press that the key causes for the deaths were speeding, drunk driving or the failure to wear safety belts or crash helmets - all of which are offences under traffic laws.
Last year, just 43 per cent of motorcyclists and their passengers nationwide wore helmets, down from 46 per cent a year earlier.
According to the 2011 World Road Statistics, Thailand was one of the top five countries with the highest number of motorcycle-related deaths.
Danai Ruangsorn, president of the Thai Roads Foundation, said the percentage of children wearing helmets on motorcycles was also very low.
"Just 7 per cent wear a helmet," he said.
Last year's survey showed that only about 28 per cent of teenage motorcyclists and about 49 per cent of adults wore helmets.
26,000 - a nice round figure of 500 per week on average
A fatality every 20 minutes or so
And about 350-400 of those 500 will be motorcycle-related
The government seems to treat it as 'collateral damage'
The occasional campaign, lots of "100% helmet" signs around Chanthaburi where we live, otherwise it's just accepted s normal
If riders/drivers had to have a licence?
Immediately hundreds of thousands of vehicles (maybe a million+ ?) off the road as all the 12-15 year olds who ride motorbikes to school would be off the road
They don't wear helmets either
If vehicles had a safety check?
See motorbikes/sidecars with no lights, no registration plate . . . and well off 'roadworthy'
The answer?
Resistance is futile.
Last year on a stretch of Sukhumvit 3 about 10km from home, at that point it is 10 lanes wide with a median strip and centre lanes an absolute racetrack . . . pedal on my bicycle clipped by sidecar and off into a big ditch i went. On bike quick and chased the motorbike/sidecar and caught them at lights. Rider - a boy about 7, with a 2-3yr old girl in the sidecar. If I'd hit eg a aprked car or lampost instead off a ditch I wouldn't have been walking away.
Look at Thairath or any of the Thai daily news sites, every day motor accidents, and it's only the 'good' gory ones that even make the news, eg:
Last Monday in Kanchnaburi a heavy salvage towtruck was trying to pull a crashed truck from a ditch, its wire rope across one lane. A Toyota pickup didn't see the wire and continued driving between the vehicles. Three dead - decapitated the paper said.
link
No answer.
Except look after yourself/family as best you can