Thailand has highest fatality rate for motorbike riders

In Thailand, 73% of road fatalities involve motorbike riders. Each year, 5500 riders are killed that is 15 a day stop and the figures are still rising, making Thailand the deadliest in the world for motorbike riders. “Excluding this category of road users, Thai roads are as safe as those in Switzerland, the United States or the United Kingdom”, says Liviu Vedrasco, a world health specialist with the World Health Organisation. In 2015, there were 26.3 motorbike rider fatalities per 100,000 people, the highest rate in the world.

And yet, motor bikes and scooters are one of the preferred modes of transport in Thailand. In 2016, they bought 1.74 million, compared with just 768,788 cars, according to the figures released by the Thai Automobile Industry; 461,783 have already been bought in the first quarter of 2017. A study by the Thai Accident Research Centre explained that motorbikes and scooters were favoured because of their ease-of-use, low fuel consumption and affordable price.

For Adisak Plitpolkarnpim, President of the Centre for the Promotion of Child Safety and Accident Prevention, allowing children to drive motorbikes and scooters is highly risky, “children use them to go to school, to have fun or to do shopping for their parents”. Thailand allows children aged 15 or more to get a license to drive vehicles with a rating of less than 110 CC, but the rules are often broken. As a consequence, each year, 15,800 Thai children are involved in motorbike or scooter accidents resulting in 700 deaths. This should be reason enough to boost awareness of wearing a safety helmet (in 2013, only 53% of motorbike and scooter riders wore a helmet, and just 19% of their passengers).

More information:

• The Straits Times – Thailand: Deadliest country for motorcyclists
• World Health Organization – Strengthening road safety in Thailand