Skip to main content

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

  • Tackling India’s road safety will reduce crash rate
    February 19, 2013
    India’s road safety record is the world’s worst but there are plans to tackle the problems. Patrick Smith reports from New Delhi. A speeded up video of a short section of road in the Indian capital Delhi was followed by a question. “How many infringements did you count in that 25-second clip on a typical day in Delhi,” asked Dr Rohit Baluja, a question that brought understandable silence. It equated to hundreds of millions of infringements each year, said Dr Baluja, president, Institute of Road Traffic Educ
  • Australia’s road safety crisis as crashes increase
    December 22, 2016
    Increases in the numbers of road crashes and road deaths are giving cause for concern in Australia. The gain in the country’s road fatality rate is of note as it comes after a 40 year period in which those killed or seriously injured (KSI) have been reducing. Certain sections of the country’s road network have been identified as being of particular risk to drivers, with moves in hand to improve safety. The Australian Automobile Association has revealed that there were 15,339 crashes in the country that resu
  • Road safety move for young drivers
    April 11, 2024
    A new road safety focus for young drivers will save lives
  • UK average speed camera installation proving successful
    January 27, 2015
    Data from the A9 route in Scotland shows that the installation of average speed camera technology is helping cut crashes. This is Europe’s longest single enforcement scheme, with the technology having been installed along a 220km stretch of the A9 in Scotland. Figures from the route show that the average speed enforcement scheme, which uses SPECS technology supplied by Vysionics, is helping cut casualties while improving journey reliability and driver behaviour.