In its 2015 Global Status Report on Road Safety, the UN health agency reported 14,059 people were killed on Thai roads and highways in 2012, translating to a road-death rate of 36.2 people per 100,000.
Worse, a leading figure at the Phuket office of the Road Safety Network revealed in late August that Phuket was officially the worst province in the country for deaths and injuries resulting from road accidents. (See story here.)
Alcohol is a key factor in road fatalities in Thailand, and WHO reported that drink driving was to blame for around 26 per cent of road deaths in Thailand.
In response, the chief of Phuket Police on Monday (Nov 2) warned all motorists that drink-driving laws will finally be more strictly enforced (see story here). Police will now stop any driver seen driving erratically and ask them to take a breathalyser test.
One has to question whether this will in fact stop someone from drink-driving, and whether the law will be applied consistently. Thailand has never enforced its drink-driving laws to any notable effect. Despite police checkpoints often being set up throughout the Kingdom, drinking and driving is still the norm.
It’s also accepted in Thailand that certain laws apply more to some than others. Two standout cases in recent memory include that of Red Bull heir Vorayuth Yoovidhaya in 2012, and model-cum-actress Anna Reese earlier this year – both who escaped detention after killing police officers in reckless driving incidents in which alcohol is widely suspected to have been involved.
These are just two examples of the many cases involving alcohol-related road accidents in which the law has been applied unevenly, if at all.
In most countries, however, drink-driving resulting in death – regardless of social stature of parties involved – is an act of crime, an act of manslaughter. Why drink-driving is considered to be normalised behaviour here is difficult to grasp.
We can only hope that these harsher laws on Phuket’s roads will act as a warning and make people think twice before driving home drunk, and more importantly, prevent more needless deaths.