Thailand second most dangerous place in the world to drive

Thailand has been ranked as the second most dangerous country to drive in according to a driver’s educational platform.

Only South Africa is deemed to be a more dangerous place to drive than the Kingdom of Thailand with the US coming in third place.

The Transport Ministry reported that there were 32,190 road accidents in 2020 and 2021 and that most of the casualties involved pickup trucks. There were 21,052 accidents in 2020, and 11,138 accidents in 2021.

The US-based Zutobi, a driver’s educational website that annually measures road accidents throughout the globe, revealed that Thailand scores badly in five different categories.

The categories include estimated road death rates, maximum motorway speed limits, seat-belt wearing rates, alcohol-related deaths, and blood alcohol concentration limits.

Zutobi ranked Thailand in second place with 4.35 points, behind South Africa on 3.41 points, and the US was third with 5.03 points.

The Ministry of Transport revealed motorbikes did not cause the most accidents and that most collisions that happened in 2020 and 2021 involved pickup trucks (37%), followed by a category of private and public vehicles (27%.

Types of vehicles in accidents:

– Pickups (37%)

– Private and public vehicles (27%)

– Motorcycles (20%)

– Trucks with at least 10 wheels (8%)

– Six-wheel trucks (6%)

– Vans (2%)

Types of roads where most accidents happened:

– Straight-ahead roads without slope (70%)

– Curves without slope (13%)

– Curves with slope (8%)

– Bridges to commercial venues (3%)

– Intersections (1%)

Types of accidents:

– Overturning on or skidding off straight-ahead roads (43%)

– Rear crash (31%)

– Overturning or skidding off curved roads (13%)

– Head-on crashes (5%)

– Crashing into traffic barriers (4%)

– Crashing at intersections (2%)

– Hitting pedestrians (2%)

Causes of accidents:

– Violation of speed limit (78%)

– Being cut in front by pedestrians, vehicles, or animals (8%)

– Falling asleep behind wheel (4%)

– Drunk driving (3%)

– Violations of traffic lights or signs or vehicles malfunctioning (2%)

– Unlawfully overtaking other vehicles, not allowing vehicles on the main road to pass first, or not familiar with roads (1%).

SOURCE: Nation