Was walking along Highway 340 at the end of last week when I came across the big commotion below.
A 4x4 had come off the road and into an overgrown trench at the side of the highway.
It looked as though nobody was hurt, as the driver was no where to be
seen, and there were no other injured parties, from
what I could tell.
On these busy highways, local shops and houses are often situated along the side of the road. Many cars tend to tear down the highways, hell for leather, so it's lucky that this car didn't end up crashing through the front of somebodies home or business.
Accidents will happen, and Thailand has it's fair share, 12,500 road deaths and 79,000 road related injuries in 2007, according to this article by ThaiPr.net.
A lot of the time, these accidents involve the young, sometimes the very young, who are in control of the vehicles. I remember when I first came to Thailand, Sutiya and I spent the night in the local hospital with her cousin's son (5 at the time) who had been run down by a moped driven by a 12 year old. He was badly hurt, but thankfully O.K.
Thailand does have a mandatory driving test, but as with many laws here, it isn't enforced stringently, although, I've heard the police will come down hard on wrongdoing after such accidents occur.
I read about another accident that happened this weekend. Police have ordered the closure of 'The Bangkok Drag
Avenue' after one of the race cars lost control and hit the barrier,
flipping over into the crowd, killing 9 spectators (full article here).
I suspect safety precautions which were supposed to be practiced by the track would have been loosely enforced.
The trouble for me personally is, being someone who rallies against the importance afforded to health and safety departments back in the UK (i.e speed cameras / pointless risk assessments / overzealous security etc), these accidents show just how the Thai's attitude towards the law, and health and safety, may in fact be too relaxed, and in consequence means they will have to endure many more preventable tragedies.
More safety, or more freedom. Which do you prefer?
For a full breakdown of Thai driving laws, there is a good website here.
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