Highways of inequality

Re: “Cops push for licence points system”, ( BP, March 24)

There has been unusual interest in highway safety recently. The goal is to drop down from the world’s top spot in highway deaths, which is an admirable goal, but maybe unreachable. Here are two reasons why:

First, I have seen no evidence of a real capacity to enforce the most egregious highway offences. Police stand in groups along the side of the road and wave people over for lack of a helmet, being in the wrong lane and other relatively minor offences. (Farang sometimes seem like favourite targets.) But without radio-equipped police cars, computers in those cars and other modern equipment as well as an expectation of better results, the most egregious offences, like speeding, go unchallenged. People on big bikes and the cars popular with the wealthy can just drive away without consequences — and they know it!

Second, as a class project at my university, we learned that 78% of all deaths on the highway involve motorcycles, mostly small ones. Accidents not resulting in death must be very high too. But, in an oligarchy with a huge percentage of poor people who cannot afford a car, motorbikes are deeply entrenched in the Thai economy. These small motorcycles cannot just be outlawed and taken away from people, although that is the best solution to excessive highway deaths.

JOHN KANE 12-point scheme for motoring offences. A successful system that is used in many countries. However, in the land of the smiles, how much will it cost to buy back a point? Will there be the usual two-tier system, ie one charge for locals and one for foreigners?

MOTOGUZZIBOB