I praise the Prayut Chan-o-cha government for its efforts in lowering the New Year’s seven-day holiday road fatalities. This year’s toll fell by 7% compared with last year, to reach 341.
But I urge him to promote road safety all year round, not just on long weekends. We have the second-worst roads in the world in terms of fatalities. Each year, the main cause is the same — drink driving, at 37% of crashes — and the main vehicle involves motorcycles, making up 82% of accidents.
In the short term, we can do things such as having squads testing drivers for their blood-alcohol content on the spot. Spot fines should apply. If they insist they’re sober, they should be taken to the nearest police station to be more thoroughly tested.
The squads should also focus on motorcyclists for helmets and speeding. Fines would be shared between the arresting cops and their station, both to provide incentives and buy safety-related equipment such as breathalysers.
In the longer term, making roads safer should be a key performance indicator for all officers in the traffic division, and evaluation and promotions should be based primarily on that KPI.
Cops should have done research into what works elsewhere, for example closing venues that serve underage drinkers, imposing jail terms for driving under the influence, and introducing specialised traffic courts for quick and fair trials.
Burin Kantabutra
Sex work a civil right
Mr Sweet (Re: “Sex tourism hypocrisy”, PostBag, Jan 7) thinks Thai sex work is rife with corruption.
Maybe so, but he suggests that legalisation is better.
I disagree. Legalisation is not nearly as effective as decriminalisation of sex work. Legalisation undermines the private nature of the activity itself and leaves plenty of room for corruption.
When sex work is treated as a civil right, a contract between consenting adults, and a truly private matter, the entire issue fades into the background. Lack of overt enforcement means Thai sex work is more similar to decriminalisation.
The American media talks incessantly about violence against sex workers in America and they are probably right about that as it applies there.
Their media talks about pimps and children as if their women are helpless pawns. But what might be true there does not seem to be true in other places.
Many people extrapolate the demonisation of American sex work onto the entire world as if the American experience is the norm everywhere, but just the opposite is true.
From my experience, most Thai women come and go freely, in and out of the industry, which debunks most claims of slave-like conditions.
There is relatively little violence. Thai sex workers sometimes do meet long-term farang partners. I am actively researching this subject in conjunction with a Thai university and this is the real story I am finding.
John Kane
Phone users robbed
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is considering asking mobile service providers to charge by the second instead of rounding the charge off to the nearest minute as they do now.
Closer scrutiny should be extended to communications providers on other fronts as well.
The TT&T Public Company Ltd has a monopoly on many home lines in many parts of Thailand. Their repair record frankly stinks.
Subscribers can wait up to two weeks before the provider responds to their complaint. Meantime, the customers continue to pay full charges for a non-existent service.
In many countries, including Canada and the United States, when a land line is non-functional due to breakdowns outside one’s home, the provider must under the law deduct the downtime from monthly charges.
Jack Gilead
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