Bangkok zebra crossing claims more casualties, days after doctor killed
The dangers of Thailand’s pedestrian crossings were illustrated again on Thursday, one week after a doctor was killed as she walked on a Bangkok zebra crossing.
On Thursday evening, two pedestrians were hit and injured by a food-delivery motorcycle on a zebra crossing outside Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok.
The pedestrians received first aid at the scene and were treated at Petcharavej Hospital. However, they were well enough to file a report at Huamak police station.
Police will interrogate the food-delivery rider before deciding whether to press charges over the incident.
The collision occurred at the busy university-entrance crossing on Soi Ramkhamhaeng 24. According to a Ramkhamhaeng University security guard, cars stopped as students and other pedestrians walked onto the zebra crossing, which has no traffic lights or beacon. However, motorcyclists failed to stop or even slow down, resulting in the collision with pedestrians.
The guard added that there had been many accidents at this crossing, including one in which a security officer was injured as he was helping people to cross.
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He urged motorists to slow down when they saw people waiting to cross the road. He also asked food delivery riders to not look at their phones as they drove as this had caused many accidents.
He also asked for streetlamps, traffic lights and a new zebra-crossing sign to be installed at the crossing, explaining that the current one was too small.
Civil society groups have called for traffic laws to be tightened after 33-year-old eye specialist Dr Waraluck Supawatjariyakul was killed by a motorcycle driven by an off-duty policeman while walking on a zebra crossing in Bangkok last Friday. Under current traffic laws, the maximum fine for failing to stop at a zebra crossing is 1,000 baht. Thailand’s roads rank as the deadliest in Southeast Asia and among the most dangerous in the world.
