TRANSPORTATIONFROM RECENT REPORTTRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THAILAND*
Yordphol TANABORIBOON

Thaned SATIENNAM

Professor, Transportation Engineering Program
School of Civil Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology
Pathumthani, Thailand

Doctoral Student
Department of Transportation Engineering & Socio-Technology
Graduate School of Science & Technology, Nihon University
Chiba, Japan(Received March 5, 2004)
This paper presents an overview of traffic accident situations in Thailand. It highlights the transformation of road accident problems in Thailand, from the past to present, with the focus on the situation of the most accident prone mode of transport in the country, motorcycle accidents.
Relating problems and contributing causes of motorcycle accidents are also detailed in this paper. Subsequently, this paper recommends several
measures to curb the alarming increases in motorcycle accidents.
Key Words: Traffic accident, Bangkok, Thailand, Motorcycles

1. INTRODUCTION“Traffic accidents are one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest,
national public health problems”
John F. Kennedy

On September 11, 2001, the twin towers of theWorld Trade Center were destroyed and history recordedthat over 3,000 people were killed. Not many people
know that about the same number of people die every day
on roads world wide1. This figure does not include atleast the 30,000 others injured or disabled. This accumulates to over 1 million people killed and between 2050 million injured or crippled in road accidents eachyear2. It is obvious that road traffic injuries are a major
public health problem globally. In fact, as projected by

the WHO that road traffic disability-adjusted life years(DALYs) loss will move from being the ninth leading
cause of DALYs in 1999 to the third leading cause by
year 2020 as shown in Table 13.
While low- and middle-income countries are facing more serious road accident problems, the trend in
high-income countries is in the opposite direction. As
can be clearly seen from Figure 1, trends over time showa sharp difference in fatality rates between high- and lowincome countries4. Fatality rates in high-income countries have been declining, while in the low- andmiddle-income countries, they are still on an upward
trend. Although the magnitude of increase varies by region, it is unfortunate that the highest rise is in Asia.

Table 1 Disease burden (DALYs lost) for 10 leading causes
1998 Disease or Injury

2020 Disease or Injury

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Lower respiratory infections
HIV/AIDS
Perinatal conditions
Diarrhoeal diseases
Unipolar major depression
Ischaemic heart disease
Cerebrovascular disease
Malaria
Road traffic injuries
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Ischaemic heart disease
Unipolar major depression
Road traffic injuries
Cerebrovascular disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Lower respiratory infections
Tuberculosis
War
Diarrhoeal diseases
HIV/AIDS

Source: WHO, Evidence, Information and Policy, 2001
* The Japanese version of this paper was included in IATSS Review, the official publication of IATSS issued in Japanese on a quarterly basis.

88 • IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THAILAND

Y, TANABORIBOON, T.SATIENNAM%change in number of deaths
per 100,000 population

80

This paper intends to highlight the traffic accident
situation in Thailand. It attempts to elaborate on the pastand current development of road safety issues in the country as well as to propose some measures to address these
problems.

Asia
Latin America
AfricaMiddle East
High-income countries

60
40
20
0

2. TRAFFIC ACCIDENT TRENDS IN THAILAND
–20
–40
1980

1985

1990

1995

Source: Jacobs G., et al.

Fig. 1 Trends in fatalities due to road traffic injuries

In Thailand, for example, more years of potential
life are lost due to road casualties than other causes5.
Year by year, Thais are killed on the roads with an average of around 12,000 persons per year or about 2 persons per hour. In other words, every day, approximately
50 Thai people who leave home for work, school, shopping, temple/church/mosque, social gathering never return home because of road accidents. In fact, in a speechdelivered by the former Minister of Transport of Thailand, Mr. Wan Muhamad Nor Matha during an opening
ceremony of a Road Safety Audit Conference held in
Bangkok on June 14, 2001, he stated that:“ ..the number of Thais who were killed during all wars that our country has been engaged in are still far less than the number ofpeople died because of road accidents, we canno longer let this serious matter rest..”Worse still, road accidents have not caused only
death and disability to Thai citizens but also substantial
damage to the country’s economy. It was estimated thatthe economic losses due to road accidents in Thailand areover 100,000 million Baht (approximately 2,500 million
US$ or 300,000 million Yen) per year, which means over
12 million Baht per hour or about 3.4% of the country's
GNP6.
As road accidents in Thailand will continue to occur; more lives will be lost together with many more injured and disabled; accumulating problems and losses
which cause a substantial effect to the Thai economy, it
is now timely to pose a serious question: how long must
we tolerate and when can we improve such chronic but
predictable and preventable problems?

The pattern of traffic accidents in Thailand has varied substantially over the past 20 years. As can be seenfrom Figure 2 and Table 2, the total number of road accidents rose dramatically from 18,445 cases in 1984 toreach a peak of 102,610 cases in 1994, an increase ofaround 456%. Afterwards, the accident tolls steadily decreased to about 67,800 cases in 1999 but started to risefrom 2001 onwards. The fluctuation in accident trends
in Thailand can be perhaps best explained by the following time lines:
2.1

The economic recession period, 1984 to 1986
During this economic recession period, the numberof accidents was rather stable and in fact was the lowest
when compared with more recent figures. The average
accident cases occurred throughout the country wasaround 19,000 per year, with 5 fatalities and 17 injuries
for every 100,000 population.
2.2

The economic recovery period, 1987 to 1992
Nearly triple the number of accidents was noticed
during this period compared with the previous period.
Not only the number of accidents increased, but the severity was also more alarming as the fatality and injury
rates jumped to about 15 persons and 41 persons per
100,000 people, respectively.
2.3

The bubble economy period, 1993 to 1996
This period experienced one of the worst traffic
safety situations in the Kingdom. A main contributing
factor was the skyrocketing increase in the number of vehicles registered throughout the country, particularly
Bangkok with around 1,000 new vehicles registered daily.
While new cars and pick-ups, as well as motorcycles,
were pouring onto the streets, traffic accidents, at thesame time, surged to about two to three fold from the previous period and resulted in nearly 100,000 accident caseson the average per year during this period. Moreover,the fatality rate also increased to about twice higher thanthat of the previous period, approximately 25 killed andan other 80 or so injured per 100,000 population.
IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005 •89

TRANSPORTATION

120,000

120
Economic Recovery

Economic Recession

Bubble Economy

Economic
2nd Recovery

Economic Crisis

1

86.6

83.2

77,61673,737

82,33688,556

94,36273,72567,80060,00080
773.7

61,329Number of Accidents

80.1

84,892

Number of accidents
Deaths per 100,000 population
Injuries per 100,000 population

80,00091,623

85.9

85.5

85.6

60

43.9
40.7

41.3

41.1

40,000

5.7

5.4

3.9

49,62540,481

38,097

35.8
28.2
25.7

24,132

23,95917.2

18,420

6.1

0

17.3

18,445

17,86418.2

35,28924.0

17.5

20,000

40

43.4

24.0

22.8
19.9

15.7

Deaths or Injuries per 100,000 population

100

102,610100,000

16.0

14.2

15.1

19.5

19.4

18.7

20.9

20

16.3
14.2

7.4

1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

0

Sources: The Royal Thai Police, Department of Local Administration

Fig. 2 Road traffic accidents in Thailand, 1983–2002

Table 2 Accident statistics in Thailand, 1983–2002
Year

Number of
Accidents

Fatalities

1983

17,864

3,005

1984

18,445

2,908

1985

18,4201986

23,959Casualty rate per 100,000 population
Injuries

Death rate

Injury rate

9,026

6.1

18.2

8,812

5.7

17.3

2,700

8,289

5.4

17.2

1,908

8,706

3.9

17.5

1983–1986 Economic Recession

1987–1992 Economic Recovery
1987

24,132

2,104

8,589

7.4

24.0

1988

35,2892,015

13,504

15.7

40.7

1989

38,097

5,368

13,081

16.0

41.3

1990

40,481

5,765

18,252

14.2

41.1

1991

49,625

8,608

24,995

15.1

43.9

1992

61,3298,184

20,70214.2

35.8

90 • IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005☞

Countinue

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THAILAND

Y, TANABORIBOON, T.SATIENNAM

1993–1996 Bubble Economy
1993

84,892

9,496

25,330

16.3

43.4

1994

102,610

15,17643,541

25.7

73.7

1995

94,362

16,72750,718

28.2

85.6

1996

88,556

14,40550,04424.0

83.2

1997–2000 Economic Crisis
1997

82,336

13,836

48,711

22.8

80.1

1998

73,725

12,23452,538

19.9

85.5

1999

67,80012,04047,770

19.5

77.5

2000

73,737

11,98853,111

19.4

85.9

2001–2002 Economic Re-Recovery
2001

77,616

11,65253,960

18.7

86.6

2002

91,623

13,11669,313

20.9

110.4

Sources: The Royal Thai Police, Department of Local Administration

2.4

The economic crisis period, 1997 to 2000
The widely known “Tom-Yum Kung Disease”
starting in Thailand in 1997 caused severe effects to thecountry’s and its neighboring countries’ economies. On
the other hand, the economic crisis brought about a positive sign for the traffic accident situation in Thailand. Accidents were remarkably reduced to about 70,000 cases
per year on average with a downward trend on the fatality rate throughout the entire period.
However, the injury rate showed a reverse trendwith an unusual by high rate of 85.5 persons per 100,000
in 1998. This indicates that road safety still remains oneof the serious health problems for the nation.
2.5

The re-recovery era, 2001 onwards
With the new Thaksin Government coming topower since 2001, several sets of economic stimulus measures have been implemented. The national economy has
shown a positive sign of recovery, but, unfortunately, roadaccident tolls have started to rise again as can be clearlyseen from Figure 2.
To further elaborate on the impact of the country’s
economy on traffic accidents, the past 10 years statistics (1993-2002) demonstrating the relationship between
fuel consumption and fatality rates are presented in Figure 3. Obviously, fuel consumption rates as well as thenumber of accident fatalities per 100,000 population during the bubble economy period were rather high, whilethese rates declined during the economic crisis period.
However, as previously mentioned, when the re-recovery
period started leading to higher fuel consumption, the rateof accident casualties has also risen. It is, unfortunately,
very likely that this upward trend will continue to surge
unless some drastic and effective measures are imple-

mented immediately to address this serious health problem.

3. CURRENT TRAFFIC SAFETY MEASURESIN THAILAND
It is an unfortunate fact that traffic accidents in
Thailand are most evident during festive and holiday seasons. Some of the most popular ones are the traditional
Thai New Year holidays (locally known as Songkranholidays falling between the period of 12-15 April everyyear) and the year end and New Year celebrations, bothof which usually have extremely high casualties and several thousand injured accident victims throughout thecountry. For the past New Year holidays, a total of 606
accident fatalities together with an other 35,286 injuries
were recorded during a short span of only one week (27December 2002 to 2 January 2003). In fact, the accident
situation of this past New Year worsened compared withthe previous years shown in Table 3. It can be clearly seenthat the death tolls have risen every year from 454 persons in 2001 to 606 persons in 2003. The number of injured victims due to road accidents has also increased
from 23,786 in 2001 to 34,303 and 35,286 in 2002 and2003, respectively. If the accident trend continues in thisdirection, the holiday seasons will no longer be merry for
the Thais to celebrate.
Fortunately, the current Government has placedhigh emphasis on its agenda safety issues and has begun
to address road accident problems seriously. A new committee was recently set up to be directly responsible fortackling this problem. Like many other committees in
IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005 •91

TRANSPORTATION

40,000BubbleEconomy35

Fatalities per 100,000 population

30

Economic
CrisisEconomic
Recovery

35,00030,00028.2
25.7

Fatalities per 100,000 population
24.0

25

25,000
22.8
20.9
19.9

20

20,00318,311

16.3

15

19.5

19.4

20,00018.7

20,017
17,985

17,923

18,79017,383

17,74015,00015,507
13,783Gasoline and High Speed Diesel Consumption (in Million Litres)

10

10,000

5

5,000

0

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

Gasoline and High Speed Diesel Consumption, Million Litres

40

0

Sources: The Royal Thai Police, Department of Local Administration, and Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency

Fig. 3 Fuel consumption and fatality rates in Thailand, 1993–2002

Thailand, this committee was initially supposed to be an
ad-hoc committee, established mainly to curb the expected accident problems during the Songkran Holiday
in 2003. Unfortunately, the 2003 Songkran 6-day holiday still claimed 559 lives and left an other 37,718 persons in hospital beds or crippled or suffered from wounds
resulting from traffic accidents. Similarly to the New Yearholidays’ trend, Songkran Holiday accident casualties andinjuries are moving upward (as can be seen from Table4), leaving many to wonder whether or not the Thais
should deserve to celebrate this long but accident-prone
holiday. Meanwhile, the unceasing problem prolongs theexistence of this committee and the Government finallydecided not only to maintain this committee but also to
expand its membership. Eventually, this committee,
which is known as the National Road Safety Management
Center, is composed of high-ranking government officials
representing various concerned agencies as well as respected academics. More importantly, the committee ischaired by a Deputy Prime Minister who can report directly to the Cabinet together with four Deputy Minis-

92 • IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005

ters of four different ministries who serve as vice-chairpersons.
Table 3 Road accident casualties in Thailand during
New Year holidays
Number ofcasualties

2001

2002

Year
2003

Fatalities
Injuries

454
23,786585
34,303606
35,286

Source: Injury and Alcohol Related Problems Prevention and Control
SectionTable 4 Road accident casualties in Thailand during
Songkran holiday
Number ofcasualties

Year
2001

2002

2003

Fatalities
Injuries

530
32,014567
38,098559
37,718Source: Injury and Alcohol Related Problems Prevention and Control
SectionTRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THAILAND

The main task of this committee or Center is totackle all road accident issues through an integrated approach incorporating the collaboration of various agencies concerned irrespective of their Ministry. The 5-E
strategy was proposed as a mandate for all concerned
agencies to practice and implement. The 5-E stands forEngineering, Education, Enforcement, EMS (Emergency
Medical Services) and Evaluation.
Several measures have been recommended underthe 5-E strategy, some of which are the development ofa national accident database system using GIS application, the setting up of the Thailand Accident ResearchCenter for R&D activities on road safety, the enforcingof “motorcycle’s headlight on at all time5”, the implementing of exclusive motorcycle lane, the “No More
Black-Spots” Program, the “Zero Pot-Holes” Program,the application of proactive measures using the conceptof Road Safety Audit, and the most controversial measure of banning alcoholic drink advertisements on TV andradio7. All these measures have been approved by thecurrent Cabinet and become a Cabinet resolution. However, like many other Cabinet resolutions, there is no
guarantee that all these measures will be implemented asthey are still subject to the availability of funds budget
which can be an important obstacle to successful implementation. In fact, budget constraint is another typicalhindrance in solving the country’s road safety problems.
To date, only a few measures are being considered seriously for implementation with the efforts of concerned
agencies. They are road safety audit measures, the setting up of an accident research center, the banning of alcoholic drink advertisements on TV and radio, and theenforcing of motorcycle’s headlight on at all times.
Speaking of one of the measures which is now being implemented, road safety audit, it is a new approachwith proactive principles to help minimize road safety
problems. Its philosophy lies on the principle of “prevention is better than cure”. As defined by AUSTROADS8,
road safety audit is,“A formal examination of a future road ortraffic project or an existing road, in which
an independent, qualified team reports on the
project’s crash potential and safety performance.”
As the concept of a road safety audit has just been
recently introduced to Thailand, its role and applicationis yet to be accepted formally and legally in the country.
Despite this fact, a group of experts consisting mainly ofacademics led by Prince of Songkhla University and theY, TANABORIBOON, T.SATIENNAM

Asian Institute of Technology through its academic center known as the Asian Center for Transportation Studies (ACTS) attempt vainly to disseminate the knowledge
on the road safety audit in Thailand. Their attempts are
aimed to generate awareness among concerned safety personnel. Towards this end, several training courses andworkshops have been organized, not only to disseminate
the knowledge but also to prepare qualified personnel tobecome road safety auditors9. With these strenuous efforts, concerned agencies are now beginning to be awareof the significant role of the road safety audit as an alternative tool in helping alleviate road safety problems
in the country. Efforts are now being made to set up thenational road safety audit committee to oversee the institutionalization of the road safety audit organization,
guidelines for implementation, criteria for accreditationof auditors as well as all related legal issues. Meanwhile,budgets are being requested to conduct widespread training courses/workshops for all related safety personnel
throughout the country. It is greatly hoped that the roadsafety audit will be seriously implemented and becomea useful measure to help alleviate road safety problemsin Thailand.
Apart from the road safety audit scheme, anotherpromising initiative is the establishment of the Thailand
Accident Research Center (TARC). TARC is the offspring of the Ministry of Transport’s Road Safety Master Plan which was developed in 1998. The Master Planacknowledges the lack of complete information and actual knowledge on road accidents as one of the major constraints for safety improvement in Thailand and identifies
the need for establishing an accident research center as apriority. Thus, in early 2003, an agreement was reachedamong different partners to set up TARC. The establishment of TARC is a unique experience as it resulted fromthe collaboration between the private and public sectors
as well as a civil society organization. An initial fundtotaling US$ 1,000,000 has been allocated for TARC operations. The fund was jointly donated by the Departmentof Highways (US$350,000), the Volvo Car Corporation(US$420,000), and the Thailand Global Road Safety Partnerships, Thailand GRSP (US$230,000) for the initial
3-year operations of TARC. The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has been selected to house TARC becauseof its widely known academic achievement in both teaching and research in transportation and traffic related areas. The main tasks of TARC entail the building up of a
network of accident investigators and researchers, theconducting of crash analysis, and the development of an
accident database system. Although it is still at the beIATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005 •93

TRANSPORTATION

ginning stage, it is greatly hoped that TARC will becomea key to the success in road safety improvement in Thailand, particularly in identifying actual causes of accidents
as well as in solving the lacking accident database system problem.
Among all the proposed measures, the most controversial one is the banning of alcoholic drink (beer,wine, whisky, etc) advertisements on TV and radio which
has been implemented since October 1, 2003. This measure has generated dissatisfaction among various parties,
and surprisingly, including sport related organizations as
they received enormous financial support from alcoholic
drink manufacturers. Nevertheless, the impact of thismeasure on road accident alleviation is yet to be examined as this is a long term effect. Besides, the lack of aproper accident database system, as already mentioned,
will be a major hindrance in determining its impact, evenif published material produced by one safety agency
called the Knowledge Management Unit for Road Safety10
states that:“A study conducted by WHO revealed thatamong the OECD member countries, the fatality rates of those countries which prohibited the advertisement of alcoholic drink were
23% lower than those permitting countries.
Moreover, among those prohibiting countries, alcoholic drink consumption rates were
16% less than their counterpart.”
It still remains a challenge for the concerned agencies to prove a similar impact in Thailand especially tothe opposition. Perhaps a more simplified measure ascompared with the ban on advertisement which should
be considered is to promote a wide spread public awareness on the effect of alcohol on road accidents.
Another set of measures which is worth mentioning is the measures to control motorcycle accidents since
it is an undeniable fact that motorcycles have been a substantial part of the overall road crashes in Thailand. Thishas been a serious threat to Thai communities as the motorcycle is a dominant mode of transport especially in theprovincial and municipality areas. Taking the accident
statistics in 2000 as an example, among the 11,988 victims who were killed in road accidents, about 73% or 8,756
persons were motorcyclists11. Therefore, several measures have been considered and put forward by concerned
agencies. The foremost one is to enforce the compulsory
wearing of a safety helmet. Although this measure has
become law and enacted nationwide since January 1,
1996, it is unfortunate that many motorcyclists have cho-

94 • IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005

sen to ignore it and the police have not seriously enforced
it either. Apart from the effort to enforce the compulsory use of safety helmets, a relatively new campaign has
been launched. This campaign calls on all motorcyclists
to turn on their motorcycle’s headlight at all times irrespective of day or night time. This is known in various
countries as daytime running headlights. Although thispractice has been implemented in various Western countries, an argument has been raised regarding the necessity of this measure in the Thai environment which isquite different from the Western world. The argument
is that in those countries, visibility is much poorer thanin Thailand especially during the winter season. However, this argument can be overruled by the fact that
Thailand’s neighboring countries like Malaysia andSingapore, which have similar weather and environmental conditions, have recognized the merit of this measureand have already started implement daytime running
headlights. This paper will elaborate on the motorcycle
accident situation in Thailand in detail in the succeeding
section.

4. PROPOSED MEASURES TO ADDRESSROAD SAFETY PROBLEMS IN THAILAND
Experiences in developed countries reveal that toimprove road safety requires a comprehensive approach,involving all components of an accident: human, vehicle,
and road and environment. Over time, the widely known“Haddon Matrix” invented by Dr. Haddon12 continues
to offer an excellent framework for assessing the threecontributing components at the three stages of accident
occurrence, which are the pre, during and post occurrenceof road accidents. This paper also recognizes and applies
the Haddon Matrix in proposing alternative measures for
Thailand as can be seen in the matrix proposed by
Tanaboriboon13 in Table 5.
It can be seen from Table 5 that the pre-crash or
pre-occurrence, crash and post-crash measures are composed of enforcement, education and campaign, and engineering and emergency medical service approaches indealing with the three contributing components of accidents: road users, vehicles, and road and environment.
Although it is not possible to elaborate on all these measures in detail in this paper, certain measures like the day
time running headlights, road safety audit, developmentof an accident database system through the developmentof the accident research center, etc. have already been dis-

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THAILAND

Y, TANABORIBOON, T.SATIENNAM

Table 5 Proposed road safety countermeasures for Thailand(Safety planning countermeasures matrix)

Pre-Crash

Crash

Road Users

VehiclesRoad & Environment

Enforcement &Education & Campaign• Over Speeding• Alcohol/Drugs use• Physical Impairment• Young Drivers• Driver License

Vehicle Inspecting Program• Breaking System,
Lighting, Tire
• Inspecting Agency
Vehicle Standards andModifications• Public buses• Trucks

Road Engineering Program• Road Safety Audits• Black Spots Treatment• Traffic Management System(Ex. traffic calming)• Traffic Control Devices• Motorcycle lanes• Zero pothole• Accident Database System

Vehicle Visibility• Reflective material• Daytime running Headlights

Community Based Approach• Public Participation• Bottom Up Approach

Vehicle and Occupants Safety
Features• Restraint System• Interior (Airbags)• Exterior (Crash Protection)

Roadside Hazard Treatment• Forgiving Road Furniture• Collapsible Facilities• Crash Barrier• Crash Cushion

Compliance of Safety Devices• Use of Restraints(Helmet, Seat belt)• Child Restraints(Proper child seat)

Crash Compatibility• Under run bars (Truck)• Bull Bar (Pick up truck)
Post-Crash

Skill of Paramedics
Ease of Evacuation
Trauma Management• First Aid, Initial proper medical• Vehicle related eg. door opening, • Rescue work
treatment
fuel leakage• Accessibility of rescue team• Rescue Skills• Rescue Tools• EMS• ERP (Emergency Response Plan)• Rehabilitation Program

Source: Tanaboriboon, 2003

cussed in the previous sections. Thus, this section will
touch upon certain additional key measures like the drinkdon’t drive campaign and public participation program.
Among all the measures being implemented, themost widely known is, perhaps, the drunk-don’t drive
campaign which has been launched and promoted for several years. Its success, however, is still questionable as
the statistics of road accidents caused by drunk drivers,
which usually followed by severe casualties, are still evident. The most recent statistics during the past SongkranFestival (April 11-16, 2003) reveals that among the 559
fatalities, 330 victims or 59% were found to have blood
alcohol level higher than the legal limit of 50mg%14. The
high death toll rate resulting from alcohol consumption
indicates another unsuccessful attempt to cope with thisproblem in spite of various campaigns that have beenlaunched by several concerned agencies.
Often time, fingers are pointed at the law enforcers for this unsuccessful attempt. However, one must be
fair before blaming it all to the police. A recent study
reveals that what caused a major setback in enforcing the
drunk-don’t drive measure is the lack of sufficient breath

alcohol analyzer devices to legally detect blood alcohol
levels of the drivers. According to the interviews with
police officers from 374 police stations in 26 provincesin 2002, it was found out that most of these police stations did not have neither breath alcohol analyzer devices
nor did they have sufficient financial support for this kindof measure. In fact, out of the 374 surveyed police stations, 303 stations or about 81% did not receive any funding support for this device15. Worst still, under the Thailaws, the drunk drivers can be prosecuted only if there issufficient hard evidence indicating the alcohol level overthe legal limit. However, an ordinary breath alcohol analyzer device that can only detect the blood alcohol levelbut does not give an immediate print-out result cannot be
used to prosecute the drunk drivers according to the Thailaw. Another potential technique, the Standard Field Sobriety Test (SFST)16, which does not require any device
and is being used to detect those driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs in some countries, cannot also
be used in Thailand to detain drunk drivers due to thementioned legal condition. Perhaps, the concerned agencies must attempt to persuade the Government to allocate
IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005 •95

TRANSPORTATION

more budgets to acquire breath alcohol analyzer devices
which are specifically suitable for the Thai conditions as
illustrated above. Subsequently, the Government should
also be encouraged to consider to practice the Standard
Field Sobriety Test, even if the test cannot be used as evidence against drunk drivers for legal action, but at theleast it can help prevent drunk drivers from causing any
further tragedy and loss by prohibiting them from being
on the wheel until they become more sober.
Another common scheme to mitigate road accidents
especially at an unusually high accident site is to apply theblack spots treatment concept. Although black spots treatment program can be used to tackle accident occurrence
effectively, the implementation of this program at the national scale still faces many obstacles. Firstly, the method
to identify black spot locations is yet to be objectively determined in Thailand. In fact, not even the clear definition of “black spots” is settled which has made it moredifficult to identify any particular location for further improvement. Secondly, the data availability and quality issues, as previously mentioned, have hindered and limited
the success of the black spots treatment program. Considering the data lacking constraint and the need to treat
black spot locations, public participation can be considered
as an alternative mean to assist in identifying black spot
locations. It is logical that the local communities are mostqualified to identify their own needs. The people livingin the areas will be able to provide useful insights since
they are familiar with the places and the roads they drive
every day and under various conditions, rain, sunshine, dayor night, etc. In other words, regular users are familiar withthe parts of roads that present problems to them17. Their
subjective feeling can be useful information particularly
if the accident data is unavailable or limited. Thus, ordinary citizens can be an excellent source to identify potential black spot locations18. However, to involve thepublic and gather their views requires an effective channel to access them. One possible and economical channel is through the WWW as the proliferation of today’s
information technology can create massive opportunities
for the public involvement19. Apart from employing thehigh technology, a more simple technique, but a little bit
more costly, to obtain public inputs is through telephone
calls. A special number like 4-digit number can be set
up especially for this purpose to encourage commuters
to call in and report on any potential black spot locations.
Although this proposed method may sound simple, it iseasier said than done as the information obtained fromthe public still need to be validated. Nonetheless, public
participation in road safety is worth to be pondered fur-96 • IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005

ther particularly for Thailand where most of the planningis still done rather “top-down” than “bottom-up”.

5. MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENTS IN THAILAND
Considering the accident statistics and related documents from all available sources in the country, all havepointed out one very obvious fact that motorcycle is themost vulnerable mode of transport in Thailand. To illustrate, according to the statistics compiled by the Royal
Thai Police20, among all the vehicles involved in roadaccidents recorded during the period of from 2000 to
2002, motorcycle represents the highest toll when compared with other modes of transport as shown in Table
6. This is underlined by the statistics on in-patients who
Table 6 Mode of transport involved in road accidentsin Thailand
Years

Modes of Transport
2000
Pedestrian
Motorcycle
Motor tricycle
Passenger Car
Pick Up
Van
Heavy Bus
Medium Truck
Heavy Truck and Semi Trailer
Other
Total

2001

2002

4,469
4,135
4,592
37,498 41,215 53,732
1,838
1,852
1,825
37,440 38,437 44,019
21,372 22,785 26,116
2,477
2,975
3,291
3,533
3,618
3,823
2,624
2,696
3,220
3,780
3,668
4,523
3,926
4,051
1,912
118,957 125,432 147,053

Source: Royal Thai Police, 2003. “Road Accident Statistic”.

Pedestrian andPedal Cyclist
11%
Other 27,422
14%
Motorcyclists 142,85275%

Source: Ministry of Public HealthFig. 4 The percentage of in-patients due to roadcrashes in Thailand, 2002

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THAILAND

Y, TANABORIBOON, T.SATIENNAM

Table 7 Road accident statistic in Khon Kaen Province, 2000-2002
Year
Types
of vehicles
involved inroad accident

2000
Fatalities

2001
Injuries

Fatalities

2002
Injuries

Fatalities

Injuries

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

Passenger Car

32

7.1

301

1.4

8

2.5

499

2.4

8

2.6

493

2.2

Pick-up

51

11.3

1,492

7.2

45

14.0

1,108

5.3

28

9.0

1,141

5.2

Truck

22

4.9

335

1.6

5

1.6

229

1.1

9

2.9

280

1.3

Bus

12

2.7

368

1.8

8

2.5

372

1.8

7

2.2

363

1.6

Motorcycle

301

66.9

16,718

80.4

210

65.2

16,135

76.6

256

82.1

17,945

81.2

Others

32

7.1

1,576

7.6

46

14.3

2,715

12.9

4

1.3

1,873

8.5

Total

450

100

20,790

100

322

100

21,058

100

312

100

22,095100

Source: Annual Report 2002 submitted to Ministry of Public Health by Khon Kaen Provincial Public Health Office

were road accident victims compiled by the Ministry of
Public Health21. As shown in Figure 4, out of the total
194,206 patients admitted to all public hospitals throughout the country because of road accidents in 2002,
142,852 victims were motorcyclists, representing around
75% of the total road accident victims. In fact, motorcyclists are the majority of road accident victims both interms of fatalities and injuries in a number of provincesin the country. Taking one of the large provinces innortheastern Thailand, Khon Kaen Province, as an example, the annual records on road accident victims compiled by all public hospitals22 in this province during thepast three years (2000-2002) indicate that motorcycle isthe most accident prone vehicle causing the highest number of casualties both in term of fatalities and injuries,
as shown in Table 7. In 2002, the death toll caused by
motorcycle accidents was around 82% of the total deaths
and likewise, the number of motorcycle accident injured
victims were 17,945 cases or about 81% of the total injured victims admitted to these hospitals in Khon Kaen.
This alarming rate of motorcycle casualties will perhaps
continue to grow unless some drastic measures are going to be implemented soon.
One contributing factor to massive motorcycle casualties is the fact that motorcycle is the most popularmode of commuting in Thailand. Due to its relatively
low cost, motorcycle tends to be the first affordable motor vehicle that can be purchased and used by low income
and young drivers. This can be verified by the statistics
on registered vehicles in Thailand which motorcycle has
the highest number registered (67.6% in 2002). Currently, over 17 millions motorcycles are registered in
Thailand. As a consequence, motorcycles have the high-

Others, 290,053 (1.2%)
Non Motorized, 20,150 (0.1%)
Small Bus, 21,838 (0.1%)
Truck, 689,512 (2.8%)
Bus, 111,542 (0.5%)

Microbus & Pick Up,
608,071 (2.5%)

Sedan, 2,651,399(10.8%)

Van & Pick Up,
3,543,511 (14.5%)

Motorcycle, 16,581,174(67.6%)

Source: Department of Land Transport

Fig. 5 Number of vehicles registered in Thailand

est accident rate. The number of motorcycle as comparedwith other modes of transport registered 2002 is presented
in Figure 523.
Apart from the extremely high number of motorcycles present in Thailand, another contributing factor tohigh casualties of motorcycle accidents may be the lackof proper driver licenses and lack of proper driving skills.
Figures 6 and 7 present the proportions of the motorcyclists who have driver licenses and those who actually attended the driver training school in both Bangkok and otherprovinces. These statistics were obtained from a researchstudy24 conducted on motorcycle accidents in Bangkok
and other 5 selected provinces during 1998 to 2000. As
can be seen from Figure 6 that among the motorcycle accident victims, the majority of them did not have driver
licenses. Moreover, the number of license holders aremuch lower in the provinces apart from Bangkok which
IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005 •97

TRANSPORTATION

Road
Accident
Victim17%
Bangkok50%

Other
Provinces

2%

48%

11%
Non-road
Accident
Victim

5%

78%

89%

Bangkok33%

Other
Provinces
0%20%

No License Held

67%

40%

80%

100%

No. of License Holders

60%

UnkownSource: Kasantikul, V.,2001

Fig. 6 Number of license holders in Bangkok andother provinces

87.8%

7.8% 4.3%

76.3%

22.0% 1.7%

50%

100%

Bangkok
Other
Provinces0%
Self Taught

Taught by friends/familySpecial mandatory training

Unknownwhen law enforcers retreat from their duty. This ignorance of crash helmet usage is also supported by anotherstudy conducted in Khon Kaen Province which reveals
that 77% of motorcyclists involved in road accidents inKhon Kaen did not wear helmet25. More importantly, forthe motorcycle accident victims who did not wear helmet, they could face almost 7 times higher severity ascompared with those wearing helmet when accidents occur25. Worst still, considering the type of helmet wornby motorcyclists as presented in Figure 9, the study24 reveals one disturbing fact that the majority of Thai motorcyclists, both in Bangkok and the provinces, are notusing appropriate helmets in compliance with the Thai
Industrial Standard. In general, they just wear any helmet to show the police that they comply to the law andare not bothered if such helmets can help protect theirhead injuries if an accident occurs. It is very unfortunate that they seem to be more afraid of policemen thancaring about their own safety. Obviously, there is a hugechallenge lying ahead for all concerned authorities, notonly in trying to enforce the law but also to cultivate
safety awareness among the general public, and particularly correct attitude towards proper usage of a simple

Source: Kasantikul, V.,2001

Fig. 7 Motorcyclist’s riding training in Bangkok andother provinces

98 • IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005

DaytimeNighttimereflects the fact that a substantial number of motorcyclists
still ride illegally and perhaps improperly. This fact isreinforced by the driving skills they had acquired throughproper training as presented in Figure 7. It can be clearlyseen that most of the Thai motorcyclists manage to learn
to ride by themselves without proper training. Thus, theymight not have adequate skills which may easily lead to
accidents.
While one simple preventive measure to reduce theseverity or minimize the casualty of motorcycle accidents
is to wear safety helmet, it is pity that many Thai motorcyclists still choose to take risk by not wearing the helmet. Figure 8 shows the proportion between helmet
wearing and non-wearing in both Bangkok and otherprovinces as revealed by a previously mentioned study24.
As can be seen, only around 78% of all motorcyclists in
Bangkok wore helmet when riding and this rate dropped
dramatically during night time. Similarly, motorcyclists
in the provincial cities also tended to ignore helmet wearing as only 32% of them wore the helmet but this rate
also dropped drastically to only 9% usage at night time

78%
Bangkok

Bangkok

22%

32%

Other
Provinces

68%

59%

41%

9%

Other
Provinces

0%

91%

20%

40%

60%

Helmet Worn

80%

100%

No Helmet

Source: Kasantikul, V.,2001

Fig. 8 Usage of crash helmet in Thailand

31%

66%

3%

30%

67%

3%

Bangkok
Other
Provinces
0%50%
Comply to Thai Industrial Standard

100%
No Standard

Source: Kasantikul, V.,2001

Fig. 9 Quality of helmet

OtherTRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THAILAND

safety device like helmet among the motorcyclists.
Among all the contributing factors and risk factors
involved with motorcycle accidents, the most significant
factor is the riding under the influence of alcohol. Results obtained from various studies10,24,25 reveal a similar fact that drunk-riders have a higher risk of facing
severe accidents as compared with sober motorcyclists.
In Khon Kaen, for instance, it was found that about one
third of motorcycle accident victims are drunk-riders. In
addition, their severity rates are about 5 times higher thansober riders25. These severe casualties are yet to include
the overall economic losses especially the hospitalization
costs, opportunity costs, human costs, etc. It is crystal
clear that drunk-riding must be barred from being on thestreets at all costs since even without alcohol influence,motorcyclists are already, by nature, at risk of accidents.
Perhaps, it may not be too pessimistic to say thatmotorcycle accidents will continue to increase as the volume of motorcycle sales in the country continue to grow.
Although it may not be possible to control the motorcycle
population nor their usage, it is possible to minimize thepotential hazards that can occur to this particular groupof vulnerable road users. This paper strongly recommends the following measures and actions as alternativemeans to minimize the losses generated by motorcycle
accidents:• Motorcycle manufacturers should provide safety helmets as an accessory part of motorcycles with no extra costs.
• Concerned authorities should encourage local, educational or research, institutions to design proper helmets
suitable to Thailand’s conditions which must also bein compliance with the Thai Industrial Standard at the
low cost possible.
• Law enforcers should consider to provide free safety
helmets to those ignore to wear one, but then penalize
them with the highest possible fine so that the collectedfines can be used to purchase more helmets.
• Likewise, this measure should also be applied to thosewearing under-standard helmets.
• All public premises as well as educational institutions
should not allow the motorcyclists who do not wear
proper helmets to enter to their respective premises.
• Concerned agencies should set up riding schools/centers to properly train motorcyclists before giving thema license.
• Legal blood alcohol level limit should be re-adjusted
to lower the limit for motorcyclists particularly young
riders.

Y, TANABORIBOON, T.SATIENNAM

It is highly hoped that all these measures will beconsidered by all concerned agencies for future implementation, then motorcycle accidents can be minimized
considerably.

6. CONCLUSION
Many indicators have suggested that the Thai
economy will continue to grow at least in the next few
years. Unfortunately, the subsequent adverse impact onroad accidents can also be expected along with the growing economy as Thailand previously experienced. A
higher number of vehicles particularly motorcycles canbe anticipated throughout the country which will resultin more road casualties and tremendous economic losses
especially the extra health care costs for the accident victims. It, therefore, remains a challenging issue to all concerned parties to address this significant social problem
and concurrently, to implement all the necessary measures
promptly to fight this long and seemingly endless battle.
It is fortunate that the current Government has
placed a high priority on fighting this accident battle.
Even though the existing National Road Safety Management Center may continue to work on an ad hoc basis,
its active role and enthusiastic attempts to solve thenation’s road safety problems coupled with its ability tosecure financial support from the Government can be considered the “light at the end of the tunnel”. Nonetheless,the success in fighting this long accident battle depends
upon the success in turning the plans into real actions.
In other words, the key is being able to implement all the
proposed measures successfully.

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