Juan Francisco Guillermo was cruising on the road of life. Accompanied by his wife and child, he was in the process of trying to set a Guinness World Record for cycling across five continents. With most of the journey complete, and the five-year venture due to end in November, setting the record seemed a done deal.
But as he pedaled on a road in central Thailand on Feb. 22, his journey was horrifically interrupted. Like something out of a tragic melodrama, fate, in the form of a reckless truck driver, brought the 47-year-old’s journey to a sad and terrible end. While his wife watched, the truck swerved out of its lane and killed the cyclist on a road in Nakhon Ratchasima. He was later arrested. The driver of the pickup truck that struck the fatal blow was arrested on a charge of causing death by dangerous driving.
While Guillermo’s death garnered international headlines for its tragedy, as did a British couple killed similarly in 2013, so many people die every day on Thailand’s roads they’re considered among the most dangerous on the planet by body count, and no one seems able to improve it, despite no lack of suggestions.
Red Asphalt
With Songkran’s “Seven Dangerous Days” set to start Saturday, it’s useful to appreciate the scale of the problem.
For an annual butcher’s bill, consider the government’s self-reported average of 26,000 in a typical year, about half the population of Rayong. That’s 71 people every day. Is that a lot? Each year 44 people out of 100,000 die on roads for every 100,000, ranking the deadliness of Thailand’s roads second only to Namibia’s 45, according to World Health Organization numbers compiled in a report last year.
Those so-called Seven Dangerous Days – which repeat during the New Year for 14 total – earned that distinction for their corrosive mixture of travel and alcohol. During Songkran 2014, 322 fatalities and 3,225 injuries were reported; the most recent New Year’s period saw 341 deaths and 3,117 injured (an improvement over 2013’s 367 killed and 3,344 injured, progress!).
Where do they happen? Most vehicular accidents occur in Bangkok, though they tend to be less severe than those outside the capital, according to a report put together by the late Yorphol Tanaboriboon of the Asian Institute of Technology. We run into each other more, but we’re usually not going lethally fast and are close to many hospitals. We’re more likely to just kill pedestrians legally crossing streets.
Of no surprise to anyone, motorcycle accidents are killing the most people. About three-in-four accidents involve motorcycles, killing mostly those between 16 and 24 or even younger, according to the Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies. It doesn’t help that an alarming 7 percent of children perched atop motos wear helmets, according to the FIA Foundation.
If numbers are unconvincing, watch 13 minutes of dash-cam carnage (from March alone) to get the idea. (Seriously awful: Most humans should not watch this except for those who should.)
Of Finger Pointing …
Some place the blame for all this on personal responsibility, faulting too many unskilled drivers with bad habits who don’t take the road seriously and don’t use proven safety equipment such as seat belts or helmets.
Others say responsibility only comes via meaningful, consistent enforcement of the law, when risk of punishment is more likely than paying a few hundred baht to get police to look the other way.
The actual roads themselves and the vehicles upon them are part of the problem, according to the Department of Highways, which blames most accidents on the catch-all of “human error.”
Most major studies of the problem don’t take into account traffic the sign posts, utility poles, kilometer stones or trees that often major factors in road accidents. After all, hitting fixed objects at high speeds tends to have the worst outcomes.
… and Hand-wringing
International experts suggest improving the situation will only happen with a sustained blend of legislation, education and enforcement.
Policy-wise, the road safety issue is among those cyclical issues such as teen pregnancy, HIV-AIDS and human trafficking that seem to get band-aid fixes before attention turns away to the next without any significant structural change.
Like clockwork, the government announced “Public Health Ministry initiates road safety campagin [sic]” in February, one day after Guillermo’s death. The usual platitudes on responsibility, role-modeling and unspecified initiatives seemed more intent on being praised for inaction than any substantive policy.
In fact a search of state media headlines from the past year (all articles pre-coup seem deleted) finds dozens of identical stories heralding the launch of new campaigns, while enforcement is frequently “tightened” or “toughened.”
Most vocally was permanent Interior Ministry secretary M.L. Panada Disakul, now a top minister in the office of junta chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who in 2013 announced a 10-year campaign to halve road fatalities which depended heavily on stringent enforcement of the law.
Still waiting to see the benefits of that campaign, three years after the Interior Ministry “commemorated” 100 percent helmet use. (It’s 43.7 percent, nationwide.)
So if most people die after cracking their heads in motorcycle accidents, what would motivate them to strap on a brain bucket? Fear of vigilant police, according to a 2013 academic study. It found more people wore helmets and lived in areas with higher rates of enforcement.
Meanwhile well-intentioned “let’s do something” efforts continue to trickle out. In February, the junta banned the sale of alcohol along roads and pedestrian areas and made it illegal to buy or drink alcohol at bus terminals.
As for bad habits, an attempt to address poor driving skills was made last year. Standardized tests – a familiar metric in the kingdom – were toughened, and training for learners increased from four to 12 hours. Passing the written test now requires 90 percent instead of 75 percent, and five-year renewals require a one-hour refresher course. An actual road test became less optional, but is still generally a non-practical affair involving cones in a parking lot instead of actual roads.
Of course, raising standards isn’t much of a fix when bribing the evaluators to pass is still a widespread practice.
Many Little Solutions
As for other suggestions for improving road safety, groups such as the Engineering Institute of Thailand have called for (among other things) the establishment of a Road Safety Audit, an agency that would monitor road safety, research the effects of billboard advertisements, and increased penalties.
Improving the roads themselves through so-called “Forgiving Highways” design would look at what’s along our roads and consider impact shields or bumpers for fixed objects to minimize severity.
Some activists have called out how Thailand’s hierarchical social structure plays out dangerously on the road, where consideration and right-of-way are often driven by vehicle size and value. The I’m-bigger-than-you-so-get-the-fuck-outta-my-way factor. Phrommin Kanthiya of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation has called for harsher penalties for large vehicle drivers who fail to respect the rights of smaller vehicles, more bike lanes, safety requirements for bicycle usage, and better compensation for cyclists injured in accidents.
The Road Ahead
It’s probably not a good idea to hold our breath waiting for immediate change. Still, until the current and future leaders of the country are hard pressed to do something more than announce initiatives, much of the work falls to non-state actors and everyone on the road. If you get behind the wheel, on the bike or anywhere near a road: Be the change.
Roads are a true social commons where our structure as a group-based society could make a difference, so remember the other folks out there before you go Full Road Rage Asshole simply because you could.
As the whole world literally knows already, we have enough bad drivers.
Photo: Rescue Volunteer Thailand
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