Lao Pride Forum - Print Page

When I was there, I saw some accidents too. A dispute about something with some people drinking beer across the street, then ended with one guy chasing after another guy using his truck to ram into the guys motorbike. I think here, they would call that attempted vehicular homicide. I was told not to ever drive while I was in Laos cause if I got into an accident, they would demand a ridiculous amount of money since I was from out of the country. How do they handle traffic accidents in Laos? Is there such thing as auto insurance there? There doesn't seem to be any traffic rules there except the bigger car has the right of way. I see traffic lights but no one seems to care about them or know how to stop or yield. I also see parents with 3 or 4 kids on a motorbike, aren't they scared they will fall off and die? It's funny but my friend showed me her laos drivers license and I asked her, why do you need that here in Laos cause there are no rules to driving. Everyone just goes wherever they want, stop wherever they want, turn whenever they want. I just don't get it. Next time I'm going to ask the taxi driver to drive on the other side of the road and see what happens.

There is such thing as auto insurance here. Parents with 3 or 4 kids on a motorbike is very common in Laos. I've seen mothers riding a motorbike and carrying their baby at the same time. They're not afraid because they are used to it, but there's been cases where infants and children have died due to motorbike accidents.

The police can take your vehicle away from you if you don't have a driver licence. Most of the time you can get away with it by paying the police some money and they'll let you go. Why waste your money on a Taxi when there's plenty of Jumbos and Tuk Tuks that is ten times cheaper.

In Laos, the road rules is not really strict. You can have as many people on a motorbike as you like, and you can carry anything on your motorbike as this picture clearly shows.

In all these accidents, the person driving a truck, the larger vehicle, is always at fault instead of the motorcycles. This is Laos logic at its best. Moral of the story, only drive motorcycles when in Laos. The owner of the larger vehicle should have money to pay since they can afford a vehicle so they are guilty as charged. The rich are at fault, the poor always win, I love Laos.

The owner of the motorbike may have money too. There are many households in Laos that own both a car and motorbike.

In both accident scenes, it's obvious that the blame must be on the car driver because they hit the motorbike.

It is more safer to take public transport in Laos. Even walking can be dangerous because motorbikes are allowed to ride on footpaths. They do that to take shortcuts.

And you foreigners wonder why asians have a reputation for being such bad drivers.

I always find the traffic in Asia very interesting. It is very different than here in the west. I had to take videos on my last trip to show my friends and family. They did not believe me when I told them. I have not seen any accidents yet, but saw many that were close. I used to watch the traffic from my apartment window in the morning. More entertaining than the television. It is almost like a sports game. ;D

It's very different. I guess in the west, you have speed cameras, red light cameras, signs, traffic police and what have you, so motorists always drive with caution.

Lao Pride Forum
http://www.laopride.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.cgi General Category >> General Lao Board >> Road accident in Vientiane http://www.laopride.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.cgi?num=1243417331 Message started by Lao Pride Administrator on 27^th May, 2009 at 8:43am