Safety Issues of Bus Transport in Thailand – A Lesson Learnt From an In-Depth Accident Investigation

Abstract

Bus is generally believed to be one of the safest modes of transport in developed countries. However Thailand’s statistics shows that there were about 3,600 bus accidents recorded each year during 2000-2008. Each serious bus accident always raises questions among general public on Thailand bus safety and this may inevitably make people less confident on the safety of the public transport mode. Recently a number of in-depth investigations of serious bus accidents have been conducted by The Road Accident Investigation Units to identify causes and contributing factors such that relevant countermeasures have been proposed to prevent the reoccurrence of such serious accidents. It is the objective of this paper to illustrate the safety issues and/or causes of bus transport in Thailand obtained from our recent in-depth investigations. Among other issues it was found that bus standard, safety precautions and practices in case of fire, and regulation relating to the readiness of bus drivers need to be promptly reviewed. Suitability of the operation of double deck tour bus and full trailer on mountainous road needs to be addressed.