limbo Posted April 23, 2006 Report Share Posted April 23, 2006 10-day Songkran road kills cost Bt1 billion The Nation, 22/04/06 Fatal road accidents over the 10-day Songkran holiday cost the country more than Bt1 billion, the director-general of the Probation Department Wanchai Roujanavong said yesterday. If the cost of each of the 476 deaths was put at Bt3 million, Thailand suffered an economic loss of more than Bt1 billion, excluding medical expenses and the cost to society for the care of those maimed. Wanchai said most of the road accidents were caused by drunk driving. As part of its campaign to reduce drunk driving, the Probation Department is to counsel 4,841 drivers, bailed after being arrested for drink-driving during the holiday, on the dangers of alcohol and make them help people suffering from mental problems caused by alcoholism. They will also be required to do the usual social service of caring for accident victims at hospital emergency units, he said. Chiang Mai topped the list of drink-driving arrests over Songkran with 694 cases, followed by Bangkok with 428, Nakhon Ratchasima with 350, Songkhla with 233 and Maha Sarakham with 186. Most drunk drivers were aged between 18 and 25. Wanchai said provinces that refused to get tough on drunk drivers tended to incur more accidents. As an example, Chiang Rai police arrested and put on probation just one drunk driver and it ended up with the most accidents over Songkran, with 223 cases. Conversely, Chiang Mai caught 694 drunk drivers yet had only 199 accidents, a low figure compared to the province's huge number of revellers. Wanchai said he would contact provincial governors and ask them to set up more checkpoints to arrest drunk drivers and put them on probation. The penalties they suffer, he said, would go a long way to discouraging them from re-offending, not to mention the prospect of far harsher punishment for a repeat offence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gummigut Posted April 23, 2006 Report Share Posted April 23, 2006 Thailand normally has 35 to 42 deaths / day. Give or take according to the year I guess. So, conservatively taking 36 deaths / day. Multiply that by 365 and 3 million baht/death gives you: Almost 40 billion baht of cost for a bit over 13,000 deaths. Fun with Numbers! <<burp>> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cardinalblue Posted April 23, 2006 Report Share Posted April 23, 2006 Numbers are always fun to play with and can always be skewed to one's advantage to support or refute one's argument.... A number is worthless unless it is defined on how it was arrived. So are talking the cost of the roadside check points? the salaries of the gov bureaucracy working overtime from their offices? the cost of projected economic loss from people who die or severly injuried? Not sure why emergency and long-term care medical care not factored in there? I am not convince roadside checkpoints is the type of program to stem the death rate. It becomes a cat and mouse game not to say of all the inefficiencies of stopping and harassing law-obiding citizens? And how is the monies collected for minor offenses like licienses, registragion, seatbelts, tinted glass, etc factor in to the dollar cost eqaution? or is this bonus money for the gov and employees? We were stopped three times from CM to isaan over song gran. Don't one has to be stopped for just cause? Is the policy out of province license plates like what seem to be happening in yasothon as all the locals go by without helmets carrying babies and multiple riders or pick-up trucks with half the village hanging on? I thought to myself what is more dangerous outcome, a car with airbags or as pickup with x number of people in the bed or a little kid or baby on a motorcyle? Their priorites are are f***** up? stop 1: wrote up a passenger seat belt violation (warning) but being a falang driver was not required to pay unlike the out of province thais who were forking over baht for other alledged offenses.... stop 2: after some chit chat, was told that there is something wrong with my tint which was compleytely BS. MY car comes with the factory's tint prototype. after a few minutes just told to move on.... stop 3: made to sit about 10 minutes and then told to get out of here... Their program is similar to aids testing..test everyone to find a very small number...very inefficient and wasteful strategy.. Someone convince me that collecting fines and taking up time with other violations decreases drinking and thus reduce death statistics????? What about true prevention programs like not selling alcohol, punishing those who sell to minors or serving to soon to be drivers? What about designated driver programs? And we discussed nothing about going a highway speed and getting hit with a bucket of water? I wonder how many accidents were caused in the name of fun? Were the water tossers reprimanded? CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted April 23, 2006 Report Share Posted April 23, 2006 Hi, "What about true prevention programs like not selling alcohol, punishing those who sell to minors or serving to soon to be drivers? What about designated driver programs? And we discussed nothing about going a highway speed and getting hit with a bucket of water? I wonder how many accidents were caused in the name of fun? Were the water tossers reprimanded?" But, but.. that would interfere with the sanuk. How could you even suggest such things? Sanuk! PS How did they get that 3M Baht figure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weird Posted April 23, 2006 Report Share Posted April 23, 2006 "What about true prevention programs like not selling alcohol" Guess we might as well not sell anything sharp and pointy either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted April 23, 2006 Report Share Posted April 23, 2006 Best way to stop traffic accidents is to ban all motor vehicles. Bring back the samlor and the kwian! p.s. It will save the country a fortune on oil imports too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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