If you've spent a lot of time in Bangkok, there are some sights that probably don't faze you anymore. Street vendors selling fried insects, ladyboys that are prettier than actual women, traffic jams stretching as far as the eye can see, people putting ice cubes in their beer/wine, multiple 7-Eleven stores in every soi, selfies being snapped in public restrooms…
But, if all goes according to a recent police plan, there's one sight that we may not have to contend with anymore: Seeing motorcycle drivers and passengers without helmets.
The Bangkok Post reports that traffic police have kicked off the "100 per cent helmet-wearing campaign" to improve road safety. Motorcycle drivers without helmets will be fined no more than B500, whereas passengers without helmets will have to pay up to B1,000. In the event that neither are wearing head protection, the fine will be B1,500.
The first question that comes to my mind is what will the fine be when there are five passengers on one motorcycle all not wearing helmets? Will police make them pay B5,000 in line with this new campaign? But does that also mean that they can all still get away with squishing on one bike? That doesn't sound like it's going to improve road safety much!
However, I understand why police are cracking down specifically on helmets. It's because regulating overall motorcycle safety is actually a lost cause.
If you think back to sights about Bangkok that probably don't faze you anymore, motorcycle behaviour probably ranks high on that list. Along with the aforementioned observation of seeing numerous people cram on one motorcycle, other things include:
- At any given moment you could be walking on the sidewalk and suddenly see a motorcycle come whizzing towards you.
- There's always the daring group of motorcyclists who will run a red light at an intersection into oncoming traffic.
- Motorcycles like to creep up into a car's blind spot, especially when the said car is attempting to make a turn.
So yes, perhaps enforcing mandatory helmet-wearing will be able to help protect motorcycle drivers and passengers. But what are we supposed to do with all these daredevil-like activities they seem to exhibit in the first place? How can we ensure their safety when they appear to put themselves in harm's way to begin with?
Let me back up my opinion with something that happened to me recently. In what I think ranks high on the list of a Bangkokian's biggest fear, my car hit a motorcycle. Obviously it was an accident! I hope you guys don't think I run around knocking over motorcycles just because of my personal belief that they are put on the roads to cause me grief on a daily basis. No one was hurt (except for my car's fender) so I will continue with my story.
It was a weekday evening and I was heading home from work. As a generally law-abiding citizen, I took the green light to mean I could go. But silly me, little did I know two teenage boys coming from the opposite side of the road had been taught that red means go. Despite slamming fervently on my brakes when I saw them darting across the street, my car ended up hitting the back of their motorcycle.
After being assured they were both fine, here's what I learned: 1) The driver didn't have a licence. 2) They had no insurance. 3) They were both not wearing helmets.
How common is this scenario? In this instance we were all very lucky, but it could have been much worse. Wearing a helmet could have been a first measure of precaution, but what do we do with all the motorists out there – of motorcycles and all other vehicles – that have no basic driver's education or concept of road safety?
It's long overdue that police are finally doing their jobs and cracking down on blatant and open violations of the law. But it seems there needs to be a complete overhaul of driving practices instead of just targeting the obvious, otherwise we might all need to don a full-body helmet to protect us from the many dangers out there on the road.