Thailand’s road safety plan makes novel step

A novel approach to improving road safety is being made in Thailand. The country is now making it compulsory for convicted drink drivers to visit hospital morgues. This move is being handled by the Thai Probation Department and forms part of a series of measures intended to improve road safety in Thailand. The aim of the programme is to scare drivers committing DUI offences into avoiding reoffending. The country has the second highest rate of road fatalities in the world, according to a report by the World
June 22, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
A novel approach to improving road safety is being made in Thailand. The country is now making it compulsory for convicted drink drivers to visit hospital morgues. This move is being handled by the Thai Probation Department and forms part of a series of measures intended to improve road safety in Thailand. The aim of the programme is to scare drivers committing DUI offences into avoiding reoffending. The country has the second highest rate of road fatalities in the world, according to a report by the World Health Organisation, with its risk of road death second only to Libya. Since the scheme was initiated over 1,700 drivers convicted of DUI offences have visited hospital morgues. The official data records 11,370 deaths in Thailand from road crashes in 2015, with drink driving being a major factor. However it is widely assumed that the actual death tolls is far higher, with many more people dying a period after crashes have occurred or with road deaths simply not being recorded.

Related Content

  • Purple haze – the exhaust debate
    May 25, 2016
    Following in the wake of the VW diesel engine emissions scandal, serious questions are finally being asked with regard to exhaust pollution. Car manufacturers have published data on the emissions from their vehicles for many years, but there has been a widespread scepticism as to how these figures have been achieved. The issue of claimed road vehicle exhaust emissions is a case of smoke and mirrors.
    Read More
  • Drink driving an issue for Taiwan
    March 22, 2012
    Official statistics from Taiwan's Ministry of Interior show that in the first 11 months of 2011, there was a 3.28% increase in the number of road accidents that resulted in injuries or deaths, compared with the same period in the previous year. The number of traffic accidents that resulted in deaths at the scene of the accident or within a 24 hour period climbed 3.47% to 1,847 compared with the previous year.
    Read More
  • UK’s M6 tolled motorway for sale
    June 21, 2016
    For sale: one UK toll motorway along with operating business. Well maintained. Price negotiable. David Arminas looks at what is on offer As if right on cue, a French articulated truck starts to back up along the hard shoulder at an exit area of M6toll. The manoeuvring is watched from an office inside the nearby M6toll headquarters. Inside, Andy Pearson, chief executive of M6toll, glances over his shoulder and interrupts his presentation to World Highways. “He’s probably missed the dedicated wide-load
    Read More
  • Safer with sharrows?
    September 30, 2020
    Do bike lanes make cyclists safer? Yes and no, says John Anderson, director of technology at Smart Design*
    Read More

Highlighted Content