It will come as no surprise to many, and it’s now official: Thailand is one of the worst countries in the world for road safety. The kingdom has had a whopping 32,000 road traffic accidents in the past 2 years and has ranked as the second most dangerous country in the world when it comes to road safety. It may not surprise you who the worst country is, but you will be surprised by the third ranking country (below).
According to a Nation Thailand report, the Zutobi website, a driver education portal that reviews countries’ ranking annually, has scored Thailand badly on 5 different factors..
Overall, the kingdom comes in at number 2 on a list of the world’s most dangerous countries to drive in. The 5 factors where Thailand performed exceptionally poorly were road death rates, maximum motorway speeds, seat-belt wearing rates, alcohol-related deaths, and blood alcohol concentration limits.
Thailand’s Transport Ministry says there were a total of 32,190 road traffic accidents in 2020 and 2021. Of those, 21,052 occurred in 2020 and 11,138 in 2021. Ministry data shows that most accidents (37%) involved pick-up trucks – not motorbikes, as many would assume. This was followed by other private and public vehicles at 27% and motorbikes at 20%.
The vast majority of accidents (70%) occurred on straight roads, with no bends or slopes. 43% of accidents involved a vehicle overturning or skidding off a straight road. Given that information, it will come as no surprise to learn that speeding was to blame for 78% of accidents.
As for where in the world is even worse than Thailand when it comes to road safety? That dubious honour goes to South Africa. The USA ranked third.
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
