Driving in Bangkok!

[Sean Moran]

Exactly Ian, when I am in da village, I see almost every day, a young kid maybe aged 8 driving his drunk tuktuk driver dady home. Sometimes, when the dady is mao, then the son drives the tuktuk. Much more cool then school.

Yeah Mac, one see,s similar incidents here on a regular basis, of course I stand corrected but I seem to remember Sean having a rather nasty accident here on his motor cycle which led him to be hospitalized for quite some time, here in Thailand it is extremely difficult to predict the unpredictable....

You DON'T ride a bike and it seems that you DON'T see that it is the car drivers that cause most of the deaths, mainly of motorcyclists, subtly if convenient. You seem to want to lump motorcyclists into the same group as cars (that is NOT the way things are in reality nor in Thailand) and then rant on about your famous young kiddies with no helmets. Kids can ride motorbikes just as good as grownups, even better.

If you TRULY want to stop people from dying on Thai roads, then the first thing that you must come to realise is that it is the ATTITUDE of the ignorant car drivers that kill the most people. I have those scars on either side of my face. Two different scars from two different cars. Stop blaming the poor kid on a motorbike for being runover by the car driven by the "mai-pen-lai" rich kid who doesn't care as long as there's no blood left behind on the duco.

[villager]

Hi Sean , my opinions are my own just the same as yours and I don,t have to ask your permission or anyone else to give them, If you are of the opinion that the standard of driving /riding here in Thailand as they are in Ozz come out and say so, in my opinion there is no comparison whatsoever and this is all i,m trying to say, in closing I,ve been riding and driving here in Thailand since 89 and never had a "shunt" mainly cos I work off the assumption that everyone is trying to "wipemeout".

[Sean Moran]

Hi Sean , my opinions are my own just the same as yours and I don,t have to ask your permission or anyone else to give them, If you are of the opinion that the standard of driving /riding here in Thailand as they are in Ozz come out and say so, in my opinion there is no comparison whatsoever and this is all i,m trying to say, in closing I,ve been riding and driving here in Thailand since 89 and never had a "shunt" mainly cos I work off the assumption that everyone is trying to "wipemeout".

Villager, I don't talk about your hospital days behind your back so don't talk about me unless you have the guts to speak directly to me, and not behind my bacj when I am asleep.

[villager]

Hey Sean , it would appear you have a rare talent for making an argument out of nothing ,LOLOLOL.

[Sean Moran]

Hey Sean , it would appear you have a rare talent for making an argument out of nothing ,LOLOLOL.

I am just glad that you are not the police commissioner because you would most likely find it rather "odder". I would like to try to do my best to help the road system in Thailand become safer and save lives, and the diatribe you continue to go on with about the 100s of 1,000s of kids on motorbikes adds to the road toll, rather than reduces it.

Give us some positive, constuctive ideas, rather than complaining about the poor people who can't afford a car like yourself. Why don't you go and buy cars for everyone in your village, and then nobody will have to ride around on cheap second-hand motorbikes anymore. Put your money where your mouth is.

<edit: typos>

[Non Aligned Bangkok]

Riding a motorbike in Bangkok?
I do it every day and have no problems (so far)
I often wonder if some bike drivers have a death wish because they do not have a clue about road safety, and, it appears, neither do most car drivers! The change lanes without warning, drive the wrong way up the road.
On Saturday i watched a car drive through a red light and almost kill to children who were using a crossing. Was it his fault? not a chance, it was the children's fault for crossing the road when they were supposed to.
I am aware of accidents can happen as I lost my GF to a motorbike accident just over two years ago. 30 years old driving in a straight line when a car came out of a side road and knocked her under a lorry! 300,000 baht is all she was worth!
Sean you may have survived physically but mentally I think you still bear the scars!

[Sean Moran]

Riding a motorbike in Bangkok?
I do it every day and have no problems (so far)
I often wonder if some bike drivers have a death wish because they do not have a clue about road safety, and, it appears, neither do most car drivers! The change lanes without warning, drive the wrong way up the road.
On Saturday i watched a car drive through a red light and almost kill to children who were using a crossing. Was it his fault? not a chance, it was the children's fault for crossing the road when they were supposed to.
I am aware of accidents can happen as I lost my GF to a motorbike accident just over two years ago. 30 years old driving in a straight line when a car came out of a side road and knocked her under a lorry! 300,000 baht is all she was worth!
Sean you may have survived physically but mentally I think you still bear the scars!

NAB, I still bear the scars physically as well as mentally. Dying has a way of leaving an impression on us in that way, and almost dying is a close realtive of dying. That's what cars can do to us. Motorbikes too. Cars offer more protection than motorbikes and cars are very expensive in LoS. Car drivers don't respect motorcyclists and that is why so many people die.

I wish you sincere condolences regarding your girlfriend. When I came to grief in a head-on with a car with no headlights on a dark New Moon night, I got to pay 40,000 to fix the damage that my body had done to the car. My motorbike, I was able to throw to the side at the last second so that it escaped with only a few scratches when it came to rest in the roadside bushes, but I still got to pay for the car. Anyway, it's all in the past now but just to mention that all I was worth was -40,000.

[villager]

Hey Sean, I find your "constructive" comments laughable, I quote, "car drivers don,t respect motorcyclists and that is why so many people die" in the next breath and I quote again you write "why not go out and buy cars for everyone in your village" whatever for for? so they can kill more motorcyclists?, or are insinuating that I buy cars for the whole of Thailand, and that motorcycles be banished , and that the tens of thousands of motor cycle to motor cycle accidents annually are just a figment of my imagination, your arguments carry about as much water as a car park puddle,LOLOLOL.

[Sean Moran]

Hey Sean, I find your "constructive" comments laughable, I quote, "car drivers don,t respect motorcyclists and that is why so many people die" in the next breath and I quote again you write "why not go out and buy cars for everyone in your village" whatever for for? so they can kill more motorcyclists?, or are insinuating that I buy cars for the whole of Thailand, and that motorcycles be banished , and that the tens of thousands of motor cycle to motor cycle accidents annually are just a figment of my imagination, your arguments carry about as much water as a car park puddle,LOLOLOL.

Villager, the whole point of the matter is that there are many more motorcycles in Thailand than Australia compared with cars, because cars are too expensive by comparison, so if you want to stop people from dying on motorbikes then buy them ALL cars so that nobody has to ride a motorbike except for recreational purposes, like in Australia. Then there will be nobody needing to get to work/shops/school on a motorbike because you have bought EVERYONE a nice new Hyundai.

If you cannot afford to buy 65 million Hyundais then perhaps it might help if you try to promote the respect of motorcyclists - young or old, one or many, loaded or unloaded, amongst car drivers so that those "innocent" little nudges that happen so often, sometimes with tragic consequences as NAB mentioned, might not kil;l so many people who can't afford a car so they have to ride a motorbike or walk. Walking around places where there are cars is also very dangerous, as was also mentioned by NAB if I recall.

Please just look past the superficial view that you have of motorcyclists and stop blaming the victims.

[villager]

Hey Sean, I find your "constructive" comments laughable, I quote, "car drivers don,t respect motorcyclists and that is why so many people die" in the next breath and I quote again you write "why not go out and buy cars for everyone in your village" whatever for for? so they can kill more motorcyclists?, or are insinuating that I buy cars for the whole of Thailand, and that motorcycles be banished , and that the tens of thousands of motor cycle to motor cycle accidents annually are just a figment of my imagination, your arguments carry about as much water as a car park puddle,LOLOLOL.

Villager, the whole point of the matter is that there are many more motorcycles in Thailand than Australia compared with cars, because cars are too expensive by comparison, so if you want to stop people from dying on motorbikes then buy them ALL cars so that nobody has to ride a motorbike except for recreational purposes, like in Australia. Then there will be nobody needing to get to work/shops/school on a motorbike because you have bought EVERYONE a nice new Hyundai.

If you cannot afford to buy 65 million Hyundais then perhaps it might help if you try to promote the respect of motorcyclists - young or old, one or many, loaded or unloaded, amongst car drivers so that those "innocent" little nudges that happen so often, sometimes with tragic consequences as NAB mentioned, might not kil;l so many people who can't afford a car so they have to ride a motorbike or walk. Walking around places where there are cars is also very dangerous, as was also mentioned by NAB if I recall.

Please just look past the superficial view that you have of motorcyclists and stop blaming the victims.

Hey Sean can we at least agree on one thing and that is Cars or motorcycles DO NOT kill or cause accidents , it is solely down to the people who either drive or ride them, and I quote you again "Kids can ride motorbikes just as good as grown ups, even better" do,s this quote mean you actively condone young kids as young as 8 to ride on Thailands roads today?.