A fatal collision in Samut Sakhon province on a recent Friday night left a 51-year-old man dead and an 18-year-old severely injured. What caused the accident? This time, it was not drunk driving or a fast car but a poorly lit curve, which a local official blamed as the source of frequent accidents.
The fatal accident is only a blip in the news. It's not uncommon to hear of tales of deadly accidents daily. But why are such accidents so frequent? It's no secret that Thailand ranks among the top country for fatal road accidents. According to the Thailand Road Accidents Data Centre for Road Safety Culture, 14,737 people lost their lives on the road in 2022, with 924,799 injuries reported.
In 2021, the World Health Organization said traffic-related incidents in Thailand made up nearly 33% of total deaths. Reckless driving behaviour, limited education, lack of enforcement, and road infrastructure challenges have all previously been identified as major obstacles to change, and current efforts to make roads safer seem to have had little effect.
Perhaps then, it's time to take a more holistic approach and address each factor that possibly makes driving unsafe, such as poorly lit roads coupled with vehicles that ply the roads without functioning taillights.
At the start of the year, Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt vowed to make Bangkok's streets brighter by replacing 25,000 out of 400,000 high-pressure sodium (HPS) light bulbs with light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
LEDs are brighter than HPS lights despite consuming less energy and can be programmed to focus light in specific directions, resulting in enhanced brightness in target areas. One of the reasons so few lights are being replaced is the cost. Depending on the quality and specification of a LED light, it can cost anywhere from 3,000 baht to 10,000 baht to replace a light, and that does not include costs associated with wiring, labour, or any other infrastructure upgrades.
The project is still ongoing but unfortunately replacing just 25,000 lights and those mostly located in major thoroughfares such as Phloenchit Road or Rama IV Road from Hua Lamphong to Lumphini will not be enough to drastically reduce fatal accidents.
Instead, it seems rather to be a vanity project as even within Bangkok, there still remains large stretches of suburban roads, where speeds are faster, with no existing street lighting infrastructure.
This means drivers are only left with their headlights to navigate safely. While it's understandable that budgets are limited and an overhaul cannot happen overnight, it would have made better sense for the local government to replace lights or install additional lighting poles in areas with high accident rates first.
A simple glance at its database of traffic incident reports would be enough to pinpoint these locations. To address any potential funding issues, the government should also explore partnerships with private entities that may be interested in investing in energy-efficient lighting solutions. This can help accelerate the transition and ensure a more comprehensive and timely improvement in lighting conditions across the city.
Another crucial aspect in improving road safety is stepping up enforcement of regulations regarding vehicles operating without taillights. Tinted windows are common among car owners in Thailand as they provide benefits during the daytime, such as heat and UV protection, reduced sun glare, and increased privacy and security.
However, tinted windows also diminish visibility during nighttime conditions, exacerbating the already limited visibility on the roads. It is not uncommon for drivers to only realise the presence of another vehicle when it is dangerously close or often too late to take corrective action when driving at high speeds. Hence, there should be strict crackdowns against offenders, with nighttime checkpoints that go beyond just crime suppression and crackdowns on drunk driving.
To make the roads safer, multiple agencies and stakeholders, including state agencies, local communities, and road safety experts need to sit down together. They need to identify where improvements must be made immediately to start reducing the number of road deaths today, rather than at some point in the future. With an estimated 9.7 million automobiles and motorbikes in Bangkok alone, and many more when you add in the surrounding provinces, ensuring adequate lighting should be a top priority.
