3,600 drunk drivers are punished

Marco

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Oct 15, 2006
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Khuang Nai
3,600 drunk drivers are punished
By Piyanuch Thamnukasetchai
The Nation
Published on January 6, 2010

More than 3,600 drunk drivers were caught and punished during this New Year's seven dangerous days as stricter
policing succeeded in reducing accident fatalities by 5.45 per cent.

Probation Department director-general Charnchao Chaiyanukit said yesterday that 3,638 drunk drivers were put on probation and required to serve 10-40 hours of community service, such as looking after those injured or disabled by drunk driving accidents.

Bangkok had the most drunk drivers at 483 cases.

The offenders would also be ordered to attend temple sermons on the dangers of drinking and asked to donate blood to help accident victims.
Arrests of drunk drivers had increased over last year because more checkpoints were set up and traffic laws were strictly reinforced, he said.

The decrease in road carnage over the New Year break proves that strict law reinforcement leads to effective prevention of road accidents, he said.
Authorities would continue the get-tough approach for the six-day Songkran festival in April, he said.

Interior Minister Chaovarat Chanweerakul said road casualties throughout the New Year holidays were down from last year. According to running statistics kept by the Road Safety Centre, deaths dropped by 5.45 per cent or 20 cases to 347, injuries by 6.82 per cent or 280 cases to 3,827, and accidents by 7.58 per cent or 290 cases to 3,534 from December 29-January 4.

The figures beat the government's goal to lower the holidays' road casualties by at least 5 per cent.
The southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat had the most accidents at 125 cases and the most injuries at 146 persons, while Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Nakhon Ratchasima had the most deaths at 12 each.

On Monday alone, 38 people were killed and 264 injured in 245 road accidents throughout Thailand, Chaovarat said.
The northeastern province of Yasothon, which had held the record of zero road accidents and casualties, unfortunately saw three accidents on the campaign's last day, in which one person was killed and two injured.

Most road accidents throughout the seven-day period resulted from drunk driving at 40.5 per cent, followed by speeding at 20.1 per cent and reckless driving at 14.15 per cent.
About 83 per cent of the accidents involved motorcycles and 67.5 per cent took place at night. A total of 4,587,332 vehicles were stopped at checkpoints and 449,673 motorists were arrested for breaking traffic laws.

About 33 per cent failed to carry a driver's licence and 31 per cent failed to wear a helmet while driving motorcycles.
Chaovarat said he was satisfied with the campaign results and vowed that the ministry would continue promoting road safety.

Some academics have argued that the real road casualty figures might be higher, but they could be checked, he said, adding that he believes they were 90 per cent accurate, leaving a 10-per-cent margin for error.

-- The Nation 2010-01-06
 
Aug 7, 2003
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I can see it now, Statistics never lie , so the next step is to ban all motorcycles during the holiday period to reduce the 83% of accidents.

Thank fully I don't think even in Thailand the authorities would be that stupid.

Would be interesting to get a break down of what capacities or class of motorcycles were involved in the accidents, would suspect they are mainly "scooters" and younger riders in the 18-30 years old group.

Saying that my farang neighbour got done on a 600 steed the day before the start of the blitz, half a night in jail until bailed out for 10,000 court imposed a 5,000 fine (minimum) and 18 hours community service.The scary bit is that if he gets done again in the next 2 years it is automatic jail time.

So think about it.
 

bard

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Oct 2, 2008
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Good they crack down on the DUI, I hate riding after dark as you meet too many drunk drivers.

One expat was nailed in Pattaya, he automatically lost his work permit, now that is more valuable than a fine and some community service.

Hope this will take down the number of DUI in Thailand.
 
Apr 20, 2009
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...as stricter policing succeeded in reducing accident fatalities by 5.45 per cent.
I love how they make these wild assertions of cause and effect without any real studies to back them up. It seems absurd that a news source claiming to be credible would declare that a 5.45% change from one year to the next is solely attributed to something as unquantifiable as "stricter policing". They don't make this statement because there are facts to support it but rather because it sounds nice. Thai newspapers are less staffed with true journalists than with stenographers to an Orwellian Ministry of Propaganda.

Sorry for the rant, I know this isn't ThaiVisa, I just get tired or reading lousy journalism like this passed off as fact. I wish Thai news sources would hold themselves to a higher standard.
 
Jul 9, 2009
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I spent a number of years in Korea and the drunk driving situation is nothing like is here. In all my time in Korea I never once set foot in a car where the driver had been drinking. I also only one time saw somebody drive that was clearly drunk. None of my friends would drive after drinking period. And trust me this is not because of lack of drinking, Korea is a firmly entrenched drinking culture. So why do Koreans typically not get behind the wheel when drunk.
Because if you are are caught driving drunk in Korea you lose your licence. Period, done, no argument. If you blow over the limit you don't drive again for a long long time.
Of course to have similar rules here would require that a licence was something needed to drive in the first place.
Frankly I don't have a lot of patience for anyone who gets behind the wheel drunk. I could care less what you do in your spare time but the minute you endanger me or my family is the same minute that I stop caring about your rights.
10-40 hours community service? How about confiscating your means of transportation what ever that may be and giving it to needy families. If the police started to do that over the coming Songkran you can be assured that the numbers of drunk driving accidents will lower more than 5%.
 

daewoo

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Dec 6, 2005
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I actually thought it was pretty good...

Here in Aus, drink driving is less of a problem, because everyone knows that the penalties are severe... but it is still present in something like 20% of fatal crashes...

here all they talk about is speeding which I think is only a minor factor in the overall stats, when the typical speed is only 10-15km over the very low limit...

at the end of the day, Thailand has a very high road toll, and I believe that all the drink driving has a large part of that... and I am guilty myself, so not on some moral crusade...

Cheers,
Daewoo
 
Oct 17, 2006
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Just by speaking to Thais I know personally 30% of them have Cars and Bikes but see absolutly no reason to have a License or training or insurance .

One of my neighbours recently bought a new vios ,she complained that she had to but insurance as the car was on credit and that what the finace company wanted but she cant driveproperly and has no License...scary.
 

Auke

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Nov 10, 2003
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Can understand that the finance company insists on the owner buying insurance with the car not yet having been paid of.

However, as long as the driver does not have a driving license having insurance won't help much. Most if not all insurances have a clause that, in case the driver is not licensed to drive that type of vehicle, the insurance won't pay in case of an accident.