Traffic accidents. It seems to be an unfortunate part of life living in Pattaya and Chonburi.
We occasionally get an email or message asking why we cover traffic accidents or motorbike accidents at The Pattaya News and we wanted to take a moment to explain why we do so.
The reasons we do so we believe are not immediately apparent to those who don’t understand.
The biggest “pushback” we get to covering accidents is the statement that “They happen all the time, it’s not news”.
That’s not entirely true and here are a few reasons why.
1. We have driven actual, substantial change by covering accidents in this city. From u-turns being expanded or closed, road work areas being further lit and more barricades added after an accident, dangerous potholes and areas of road filled, traffic police further assigned to areas that frequently have issues, etc….the city administration closely follows us and other local news and when they see continual dangerous areas and we highlight that problem action is taken more often than people think. This in turn hopefully causes fewer accidents in the future.
2. On a number of occasions we have published accidents with an unidentified driver but through basic descriptions of the location, vehicle, and other details we have been contacted and assisted family and friends in getting support and finding the injured or in some cases unfortunately deceased individual. This has also led to those in disputes with insurance companies or relevant legal agencies help get assistance with photos and information taken at the scene of the accident (see 3)
3. Videos, photos, and witness statements we have posted have been utilized by those in accidents, especially hit by drunken drivers, to properly prove fault and avoid having to pay out of pocket or for individuals to help prove to law enforcement or legal entities they were in the right and not at fault.
4. We hope that by providing continual reinforcement that driving can be dangerous here, especially late at night, for people to take some precautions, wear a helmet, slow down and be aware of dangerous roads and locations. We are at the end of the day a local digital newspaper and serve our local community. We are aware this point may be a bit naive but if we cause even one person to take further precautions we have succeeded.
There are other smaller reasons as well but hopefully, this small list of four shows our readers why we post accidents and will continue to do so, albeit without graphic or insensitive images that could damage or harm the family or friends of those involved in an accident.
Kind regards,
Adam Judd, Co-owner of The Pattaya News
The following is an updated version of an editorial that first appeared in June of 2020 as we have had many recent questions about traffic accidents.