Thailand has a reputation for a lot of things and not all of them are good. One of the things that people who don't spend much time here might not be aware of is the fact that this country has some of the most dangerous roads in the world despite the fact that the roads themselves are actually kept in very good shape. I've been in other countries where the danger on the roads comes from poor maintenance or a complete lack of it. Here in Thailand I rarely see loads of potholes the likes of which were all over the place in my home country of USA. Thailand does a great job of having almost perfect looking roads but it's just the other side of the roads that make it so dangerous.
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having your country be red in this map is definitely not a good thing
Thailand routinely is in the top 3 in the world for road deaths per capita and during the Songkran festival, which lasts anywhere from 3-10 days depending on where you live in the country the number of road deaths is expected to be in the thousands as it has been every year.
This is another one of those things that the government promises every year that they are going to do something about but every year another thousand people lose their lives on the deadly roads.
This is because of the revelry, the overloading of vehicles, and of course, drunk driving.
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One of the favorite things to do on the Songkran days is to load up a pickup truck with villagers and then drive into the town where there are more people and then throw water at everyone. It really is a lot of fun but this is a huge part of the reason why there are so many accidents. Also, when you have a ton of people unsecured in the back of a pickup truck, an accident is going to cause a lot more carnage.
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I've seen these trucks packed to the gills without any chance of being able to fit another person in there. Add water to the mix and potentially booze for various people that are driving and we have a very dangerous situation. It is just as illegal to drink and drive and even to overload a pickup truck in Thailand as it is in other countries but they turn a blind eye during this holiday. This makes very little sense to me since they have all the data and are very aware of the fact that these "Seven Deadly Days" result in huge amounts of casualties every single year.
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Having a water war that the entire country is participating in is actually a lot of fun and I look forward to the first 2 days of it because I don't leave my neighborhood and if I do drink, I either take a taxi or I ride a bicycle. I know that drink driving a bicycle isn't really super puritan, but at least the only person I am going to hurt should I crash will likely only be me. For the most part I don't really get that drunk anyway so I'll just say that I am not trying to make out like I am a saint here, but I would never drive so much as a scooter when drunk.
I guess I just don't understand how the Thai government can sit back and just allow this to happen. I remember hearing stories about how they attempted in some places in the south to ban the riding in the back of pickup trucks on Songkran and the villagers revolved and even threatened to burn down a police station. The people are aware of the risk and are willing to take it I guess and I suppose you could say that I king of appreciate that the government is allowing people to make their own choices, even to their own detriment. This doesn't make it any less of a tragedy when a pickup truck filled with innocent children flies into a ditch because the driver was drunk though.
Songkran is a great holiday, but please folks, don't get into pickup trucks if you are visiting. It's just not a great idea and if statistics are to be believed, it is a really great way to end up injured badly or worse, dead.