Yes.... A woman was cut in half two days ago by a 19 year old in a porsche doing 120 kph up near Bang Pha In.... 120kph on a city road..... A few weeks ago a 16 year old hi-so girl with no licence took out 9 people in a minibus on the overhead freeway also heading north in Bangkok.... A couple of years ago another high-so guy deliberately rammed a crowd at a bus stop because he had lost face in an altercation with a bus driver. People died. Nasty side of this beautiful country....
The surprise expressed on this thread at the lethal and predatory driving standards on Thai roads is justified. It is a shock when you first encounter it, although you do get used to it after a while and in twenty years of expecting the worst and driving defensively and cautiously accordingly, the only thing that has put me in a slide was an unpredictable canine with a tiny brain somewhere near Pranburi. The dog was entirely unharmed.
What is a totally weird reality is that some people who live here (or claim to), believe that they boost their expat 'cred' by endorsing this horror (that Thai people loathe) and accuse those (including Thai pressure groups and relatives of the dead presumably) as being 'whingers'.... It is a truly horrific and grisly attitude and it endears them only to each other.... certainly not to any Thai people I know... But then I don't know any Thai people who drive a Porsche.... Although I know a number who have lost family members in accidents that never needed to have happened.
The standards of driving in this country are truly murderous....
http://wp.me/p16wS1-1l.... And most of the deaths are entirely unneccesary... Some of the expats here think they live in a playground and some of the Thai hi-sos in the fancy sports cars know they can buy off the victims for between 100,000 and 200,000 baht.... The price of the arresting officer might be more complicated.....
If you are aware of this (as you guys are) and drive cautiously you will most likely be fine....
