Skip to main content

Thailand’s road safety crisis is killing the young

Thailand’s road safety crisis is killing a worryingly high number of its young citizens. The latest data reveals that over 17,000 youngsters are killed in road crashes/year. Most of the road crashes involve the use of motorcycles. Between 2013 and 2017, 17634 youngsters were killed on average every year, according to data assembled by the Road Accident Victims Protection Company, the Public Health Ministry and the police. The lack of helmet use amongst many of Thailand’s powered two wheeler riders is see
May 21, 2019 Read time: 1 min

Thailand’s road safety crisis is killing a worryingly high number of its young citizens. The latest data reveals that over 17,000 youngsters are killed in road crashes/year. Most of the road crashes involve the use of motorcycles.

Between 2013 and 2017, 17634 youngsters were killed on average every year, according to data assembled by the Road Accident Victims Protection Company, the Public Health Ministry and the police.

The lack of helmet use amongst many of Thailand’s powered two wheeler riders is seen as a major factor in the high annual fatality rate.

Related Content

  • Joining forces on safety'
    February 15, 2012
    The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) welcomed the launch of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, saying it will enable the European Union to join forces in tackling road safety at a global level. The UN move aims to reduce by 50% the projected increase in road deaths by 2020, and was developed with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which predicts that road traffic injuries will rise to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030 in the world. It demanded action to correct t
  • Road safety improvement for the US
    December 11, 2012
    The US is seeing improvements in road safety overall, with a drop in road crash statistics for 2011. The data for 2011 is encouraging and the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released a new analysis indicating that highway deaths fell to 32,367 in 2011. This marked the lowest level of road related fatalities since 1949, 1.9% decrease from the previous year. Furthermore, this updated 2011 data show the historic downward trend in recent years continu
  • Europe’s road safety targets at risk
    July 10, 2015
    This new analysis has been published by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). According to the ETSC data, 2014 showed the lowest annual reduction in EU road deaths since 2001. In all 25,845 people were killed in road crashes in the 28 nations of the EU during 2014. This represented a decrease of just 0.6% compared to 2013. EU member states now need to cut deaths by almost 8% each year until 2020 to meet the target set in 2010 to halve deaths within a decade.
  • Safety gains seen on Europe’s roads, and wider afield
    January 29, 2020
    Road safety is improving in parts of Europe.