At the age of 20, Prasom Suksawaeng thought he had a long and happy life ahead. He was born into a warm, loving family; he went to a good university; he felt that nothing could go wrong for him.
demon drink: Three people were injured in a car crash in Chon Buri’s Muang district, the driver was allegedly drunk. Drink-driving is a factor in about 40% of Songkran crashes. photos: Bkk post archive and courtesy of Prasom Suksawaeng
That changed in an instant on a night in January, 1995, when he went out drinking with friends in Bangkok’s Suan Oi neighbourhood.
It was late, and Mr Prasom had been drinking heavily. He thought that as there would be no police on the streets, it would be OK to ride his motorcycle to take his sister home. After dropping her off, he tried to return to the drinking session with his friends, but did not make it back.
“I drank a lot and I couldn’t control myself 100%. I was on the bike heading back to see my friends. The road was empty at that hour and it was raining. I suddenly lost control of my motorcycle. I can’t remember much except for the fact that I flew off my bike and landed on the back of a truck in front of me,” Mr Prasom said.
A witness told police Mr Prasom struck his neck hard when he landed on the truck.
When he regained consciousness some time later, Mr Prasom found his charmed existence was gone and life was now a nightmare.
“I can’t feel anything from my chest down. I can still move my arms but they are not as strong as before,” he said.
Mr Prasom is not the first road accident victim to suffer permanent injuries, nor will he be the last. But he was lucky to survive at all.
His story holds a timely warning — behind the fun facade of the annual Songkran festival is a deadly cocktail of drunkenness, speed and other unsafe driving practices that combine to make this week the worst of all on the country’s roads each year.
Thailand has the second-highest traffic fatality rate in the world, with 44 deaths per 100,000 residents, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute who studied road statistics in 193 countries.
The only country with roads deadlier than Thailand’s was Namibia, which had 45 deaths per 100,000 people.
And local police statistics show that the death toll from road accidents doubles during the annual Songkran holiday. According to the figures, between 2009 and 2013 there were about 27 road deaths per day during non-holiday periods and an average of 52 road deaths per day during Songkran.
PREVENTATIVE MEASURES
The New Year festival has been described in the past as “seven days of danger”, but this year police are hoping to put a positive spin on road safety in an effort to reduce road deaths by renaming the week “seven days of safety”.
grim consequences: Prasom Suksawaeng was paralysed after a motorcycle crash when he was 20.
Prommin Kantiya is the director of the Accident Prevention Network (APN), which oversees road safety campaigns and policies.
He said this year’s holiday campaign, aiming for an accident-free Songkran, will focus on building a road safety culture.
Mr Prommin said the most effective way to prevent accidents was to create zoning for the celebrations and not ignore the problem.
“Each area of each province will have to determine the specific area of their town for the Songkran celebration. People can only splash the water in one specific zone with supervision by local officials,” he said.
Within each designated zone, the sale of alcoholic beverages will be prohibited and no cars or motorcycles will be allowed to pass through.
There will be about 3,000 checkpoints and service centres on the streets throughout Thailand. The police will be in charge of road law enforcement and local administration officials will staff service centres to assist road users. The checkpoints will be established at known danger spots and every 150km on the main highways.
“Even though the police set up checkpoints to check for drunk drivers or those who break the law, in practical terms the law can’t always be enforced,” Mr Prommin said.
“I can say that the Songkran period is the most difficult time to enforce the law.”
Mr Prommin said many Thais caught drink-driving excused their behaviour by claiming: “It is only once a year.” He said they often got away with it by convincing police it was simply the result of a New Year celebration and that they didn’t habitually drive under the influence of alcohol.
Sometimes, he said, the law-breaker would contact an influential person — a police officer uncle, village headman, or someone else in a position of power — to negotiate with police on their behalf to have the charges dropped.
“Instead of helping to make the law more effective, these people make it even harder for the police to do their work,” Mr Prommin said.
Another factor that contributes to the accident rate occurs when checkpoints are not set up in known danger zones, but are instead placed in areas convenient for the police or government officials.
“Some government officials and police choose to just sit in their tents and wait for the accident report to come in, which is not an effective way to prevent accidents,” Mr Prommin said.
This year, checkpoint officials will be encouraged to patrol their areas to see the activities, monitor them for safety and ensure that no one is selling or consuming alcohol in the prohibited zones.
Beside patrols to enforce the laws, the officials will also gain a better understanding of accident risk factors in their areas.
“Thai people should think about what we want and how we want to promote the image of our country. Do we want to be known as the hub of the water party with booze and a high death toll? Or do we want to be known for having a beautiful culture that no one else has?” Mr Prommin asked.
DECADE OF ROAD SAFETY
Police Assistant Commissioner Ruangsak Jritake, who oversees all police-related traffic issues in the Kingdom, said most of Thailand’s road fatalities involved motorcycles.
head for safety: Prommin Kantiya, the director of the Accident Prevention Network, wants motorcyclists to wear helmets and ride responsibly during the holiday.
“Approximately 70% of the accidents that occurred during the long holiday period were motorcycle accidents. About 10,000 people per year die in motorcycle accidents — both the drivers and passengers,” said Pol Lt Gen Ruangsak.
Most of those who died were not wearing helmets, he said. Drink-driving and speeding also contributed heavily to the toll.
“This year, we will have the police pay special attention to these three factors,” he said.
“It can be anyone from young kid to a very old man who could have an accident if they fall into one of these categories.”
Pol Lt Gen Ruangsak said Thailand was a participant in the Decade of Action for Road Safety (Dars), which was established at the first global ministerial conference on road safety in Moscow, Russia, in November, 2009. The Dars timeline is from 2011 to 2020 and the campaign focuses on five main areas: road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users and post-crash response.
Thai police are working with 54 other organisations as part of the national Dars agenda.
“We are aiming to reduce the accident rate as much as possible,” Pol Lt Gen Ruangsak said. “We don’t have a target percentage since the geographical factor of each area base is different. Some areas have straight roads on flat land and some areas are situated in valleys with steep roads. So each area has its own unique problem to deal with.”
Chestha Mosikarat, the director of Disaster and Safety Integrated Management Bureau from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), told Spectrum the DDPM aimed to bring the road accident rate down to a quarter of its current rate by the end of the current Dars campaign. Mr Chestha said the death toll from road accidents was far greater than deaths from diseases such cancer or heart attacks.
His department, which has been keeping Songkran road accident statistics for the past seven years, agreed with police that most accidents involved motorcycles, and that drunkenness and speeding were the leading causes of the accidents. Mr Chestha said figures showed that the most at-risk group was people of working age and that most of the holiday road crashes took place between 4pm and 8pm.
POLICY FAILURES
Mr Prommin said that past policies had failed to curb the death toll because the government lacked effective ways to enforce road laws.
He said three factors caused road accidents: vehicles, people and road conditions — things that can’t really be controlled by the government.
“There are many cars, trucks and buses that are not in a roadworthy condition,” he said. “Some are very old and not safe to use. The brakes of some buses are not good enough for long-distance journeys. I don’t know how they pass the inspection to be on the road.”
And Thailand lacks proper law enforcement for motorcyclists, he said. Most accidents involve motorcyclists, many of whom don’t wear a helmet. Mr Prommin said laws were in place to ban motorcycles of less than 110cc capacity from travelling on highways, a major cause of road fatalities, however, they were not properly enforced.
Bad drivers were another area where law enforcement failed, he said. Without a demerit system, drivers who have killed people in road accidents do not lose their licences and can continue to drive. “The system we have doesn’t work. We don’t screen bad drivers out of the system and prohibit them from driving,” Mr Prommin said.
Drink-drivers should lose their licence after being found guilty of the offence two or three times. “It’s not that we don’t have the means or laws to prevent this from happening. We do have them, but for some reason we don’t use them,” he added.
Poorly designed and built roads also impacted on road safety, Mr Prommin said, adding that many roads were designed according to the available budget, rather than geographical needs.
“We have many good roads but there are also many that don’t meet safety standards. For example, the roads that we have are designed for speeds not exceeding 60kph. In fact, many cars are doing at least 120-140kph,” he said.
Warning signs and lights should be installed in areas known to be potentially hazardous, but the system only provides for their installation after three road accidents have occurred, Mr Prommin said.
“It is wrong to wait until someone has died before that area can be marked as a risky spot. I think we must have better ways to prevent it from happening,” he said.
Corruption during the building phase sometimes also resulted in low-standard roads, Mr Prommin said. “Some roads are always undergoing roadworks because the construction company uses lower quality materials to save money and keep the remainder,” he explained.
“I do trust the knowledge and ability of the engineers, but I don’t trust the monitoring process.”
EASY TO GET
A Thai driving licence is very easy to get and renew. If you pass the test, you receive a one-year licence. When that expires, you can renew it as a five-year licence without taking a new test.
“Thai people who have a long-term driving licence feel like they have a special privilege,” Pol Lt Gen Ruangsak said.
“They don’t have to retest their driving ability which is really wrong. Everyone should be tested for their skill on the street. It's not how long you have been driving, it's more to do with how well you can drive.”
Underage drivers were also a big problem and caused many accidents, Mr Prommin said. “It's not unusual to see a seven-year-old kid on a motorbike because it is culturally acceptable for many families,” he said.
The law allows 15-year-olds to apply for licences for motorcycles with engines no bigger than 110cc.
But once they get the licence, no one really checks if they are complying with the restrictions. Police say drivers need to be more responsible for other people on the roads and ensure they are physically and mentally ready to operate vehicles.
“Training and education are also necessary for all drivers. People with permits to drive should always review their lessons and always be aware of the traffic laws,” Pol Lt Gen Ruangsak said.
APN research shows youths in the 15 to 24 year age group were most at risk, with the highest count in the road death tolls.
Mr Pommin said that as it was difficult to stop young people from riding motorcycles, parents should monitor them and ensure they are practising road safety.
“At least tell them to wear a helmet or encourage them to have a more skilled, licensed driver to ride on the motorcycle with them,” he said.
“But the best way is not to let them be on the streets riding a motorcycle. No one wants to see their child come home as a dead body.”
Mr Prasom, the now-paralysed motorcyclist, would probably add that they wouldn’t want a family member coming home injured, either. n
danger zone: Below, Pol Lt Gen Ruangsak Jritake points to one of the black spots where Songkran accidents happen. photos: Chaiyot Yongchareonchai and Thiti Wannamontha
