It’s a question asked by an article nearly a year ago. Tim Newton ponders if much has changed in the last 12 months….
“In the worst of the incidents, 25 people died on Monday in Chonburi province after a pick-up truck and a minivan collided and burst into flames.
In all, 426 people died on Thailand’s road between Dec 29 and Jan 3, up from 340 in the same period a year earlier.
These words were written nearly a year ago, after the 2016/2017 ‘Seven Days of Danger’. It’s a question one should ask as we’re poised to enter the next set of very dangerous days – days which I’m sure we’ll report and reflect upon with horror and dismay.
How can the road toll be curbed, indeed? The more the Government and police seem to try, the higher the toll rises – the key ‘drivers’ of the road toll numbers simply aren’t being addressed. And here we are, as the sun sets on another year, where Thailand has hit the Number One spot in the world, according to ‘World Atlas’.
This accolade is a blight on the Kingdom.
Whilst the top brass flail their arms around deflecting questions about the Deputy PMs haute watch collection and distorted investigations into dead Army cadets, they should be focussing a lot more of their attention on this national disgrace.
Sadly some 500 or so good people won’t be around to celebrate much of 2018 if history repeats itself on Thailand’s roads during the ‘silly season’.
Cambodia may have to relinquish it’s claim to having the ‘Killing Fields’ (referring to the Khmer Rouge purge between 1975-79) and send the title next door. No other term better reflects the situation on our roads.
Tim joined The Thaiger as one of its first employees in 2018 as an English news writer/editor and then began to present The Thaiger's Daily news show in 2020, Thailand News Today (or TNT for short). He has lived in Thailand since 2011, having relocated from Australia.
