Five people were hurt when this truck smashed into cars at a red light in May. Thailand this year posted the second-highest road-fatality rate in the world, the World Health Organization said. (Bangkok…
A lack of key safety standards and poor enforcement of laws already on the books have combined to give Thailand the second-highest road-fatality rate in the world, according to a new World Health Organisation survey. In its 2015 Global Status Report on Road Safety, the UN health agency said 14,059 were killed on Thai roads and highways in 2012, translating to a road-death rate of 36.2 people per 100,000, a rate only surpassed by war-torn Libya, where 73.4 people per 100,000 died that same year. Thailand’s traffic-death rate was only even approached by Iran (32.1 per 100,000), Togo (31.1) and nine African countries that posted rates between 30 and 35. Furthermore, the WHO concluded, road fatalities in Thailand were far higher than reported. Based on its models, the agency estimates 24,237 actually were killed in 2012, 42% more than stated by the Public Health Ministry.