Alarm raised on tourist road kill

Thailand’s official Road Safety Centre has asked the Ministry of Tourism and Sports to strengthen safety for tourists using land transport claiming a UK report ranked Thailand as the world’s second most dangerous country for tourist-related road accidents after Honduras.

The centre was making a belated response to the UK-based FIA Foundation (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) 27 September 2010 report that researched fatal road accidents involving tourists. It concluded that often tourists faced a higher risk of dying in a road accident than residents of the country they were visiting.

However, the Thailand Road Safety Centre got it wrong when it said the FIA had ranked  Thailand second only to Honduras for fatal road accidents involving tourists. It was in fact research by the US Department of State specifically on road accidents involving US citizens that came to that conclusion.

Called “Bad Trip” the foundation report  quoted a  US Department of State Database on fatal accidents reported in 14 countries over a period  20o2 to 2007. The average statistics showed that only Honduras reported more fatal road accidents involving US tourists than Thailand.  The US statistics showed the average road kill rate for US tourists in Thailand in 2005 was 50 for 100,000 visits.

The quoted figure was higher than the average road kill rate for Thai citizens, which was 19 for 100,000, indicating the risk of a deadly accident was higher for US tourists than Thai residents.

While experts might challenge the methodology and conclusions of the quoted data in the FIA  report, Thailand’s travel industry understands that references to a high travel risk on Thai roads could seriously mar  the country’s claim to be a safe and hospitable destination.

With or without the FIA report,  Thailand road safety centre correctly concedes there is a deadly failure in road safety policing and controls and it impacts on tourists travelling in the country.

One of the problems is that tour companies outsource transport to third party companies and have little or no control over the standard of driving or the quality of the transport rented.

There is a lack of independent policing to ensure tourist bus or commuter van drivers are qualified, sober and are not driving for extended periods without a rest. Fines for speeding are low and most offenders ignore police summons or demands to to pay fines. Even official government bus services to the main tourist destinations  cruise at high speeds exceeding the 90 kph speed limit. Their published departure and arrivals times  confirm the buses must cover the distance at illegal speeds  to arrive on time.

The FIA Foundation is an independent UK registered charity which manages and supports programmes to promote safety, environmental protection and sustainable mobility as well as funding specialist motor sport safety research.

Reacting to the report, Thailand’s Road Safety Centre pointed out that although the country promotes tourism, it failed to provide an adequate safety campaign for vacationers  and has done very little to reduce to improve road safety.

The centre proposed to the tourism ministry the following points:

•Cooperate with Royal Thai Police, Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, embassies, related tourism association and the Professional Tourist Guide Association of Thailand to reassess the death toll statistics and arrive at a more accurate cause of death, while establishing a rules monitoring tour buses, drivers, security equipment and safety systems;

•Provide a road safety handbook for tourists to offer tips on staying safe when travelling overland;

•Encourage tourist destinations to improve road safety management through training course and setting up consultancy units.

Source - ttrweekly