The recent crash of a bus that overturned and killed many people in Prachin Buri is not just another road safety incident. This type of incident forms part of a pattern that has not been addressed let alone answered. The purpose of a collision investigation (they are not accidents) is to determine the root cause to provide information to prevent such incidents form occurring again.
It's glaringly evident that this has not been done, which is why these types of roll-over incidents occur. The ignorant and ill-informed blame speed and the driver. A vehicle travelling downhill approaching a bend will not overturn if the correct gear is selected and the vehicle is positioned correctly for the bend. I have given presentations on advanced driving to include cornering in many countries to many international companies.
A driver is only as good as the training received and as the vast majority of incidents are a result of poor hazard perception. It must be noted and addressed that hazard perception, which is the foundation of defensive driving, is neither trained nor tested in Thailand.
While most will focus on the deaths and understandably so, the bigger picture is the cost. The true cost is the economic loss due to road traffic-related deaths and severe injuries, which was estimated at 531 billion baht (US$15.51 billion) in 2022, equivalent to 3.06% of GDP, according to the Thailand Development Research Institute Foundation (TDRI). So, why have governments past and present ignored this? Well, road safety is quite a complex subject. Driver training alone has never been the solution to road safety, and neither is throwing money at it. After all, the United States has the worst road safety record of the developed or Western world.
The successful countries are known as the SUN countries: Sweden, UK and the Netherlands. As a UK national, I have provided advanced driver training, accident investigations and road safety presentations in over 30 countries -- but not Thailand! The solution is known as the 5 Es -- Education, Engineering, Enforcement, Emergency and Evaluation -- and Thailand is weak in all.
One must first accept that you have a problem if you want to solve it, and this is the biggest challenge for Thailand. If the kingdom is serious about addressing this, then the first step is to take expert advice. I accept there will be resistance to this, but how many more must die or be injured and disabled because of nationalistic pride? The cost to the economy should be motivation to any government no matter the colours. What is certain is that doing nothing is no longer an option. If you truly love your country then save it from this epidemic. After all, Thailand did exceptionally well with the Covid epidemic, so why not road safety? At what point do parents, brothers, sisters and journalists say enough is enough?
Jamie Waddell is a Training and Development specialist on road safety and safety auditor.