Staying Safe on Thailand's Highways

It isn’t a secret that Thailand’s roads are dangerous to drive on. I want to help my viewers to avoid becoming a traffic statistic in Thailand.

According to the World Health Organization Thailand, in 2010, had 38.1 road fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year and had 92.4 road fatalities per 100,000 motor vehicles per year which was the equivalent of 26,312 in 2010.

Deaths/100,000/year (an international standard for comparisons) and total actual number of deaths in Thailand, due to traffic accidents, (possibly contrary to intuition), have been declining since 2003. A prominent rather unexplained drop occurred between 2009 and 2010.

When looking at the vehicles involved in traffic accidents in Thailand, the figures indicate that the majority of accidents involve motorcycles, personal cars, pickups, and taxis, in that order. However a substantial number of trucks and buses are also involved, while pedestrians and bicyclists have very low numbers.

There are about the same number of traffic accidents (2012) in Bangkok as in all the provinces of the rest of the country combined. In Bangkok, proportionally more personal cars are involved in accidents, while in the ‘countryside’ pickups feature more prominently. Taking into account the number of motorcycles in Bangkok and the whole country, there are proportionally more accidents involving motorcycles in the capital.
However, while the number of accidents in Bangkok is as high as in the rest of the country, the number of deaths and serious injuries are way lower, while also the number of mildly injured persons is more moderate.

I must caution here that I are talking about reported traffic accidents, where the police department gets involved. Obviously some minor traffic accidents (and probably some accidents with only minor injuries) do not get reported and are handled by the parties involved.

So how can you avoid being a traffic statistic? Either stay off the roads or if you choose to drive understand how the Thais themselves drive and react accordingly. In this video I will show you how I interpret the actions of actions Thai drivers and give a few helpful tips that might help keep you safe.

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