Photos by MJ Klein
I have one of those popular HD video recording cameras in my car. Whenever I’m driving I run the camera so it records the actions going on in front of my car. Here are a couple of still shots from a few days ago:
This one I like to call “the truck salmon” as he is on the wrong side of the road, driving against the flow of traffic. He’s trying to get back to the correct side of the road as quickly as possible. I came very close to him, as well as several other cars. Apparently it’s too much trouble to go with the proper flow of traffic up to the next intersection to turn around.
I’m not sure what to call this one. Most people pull over to slow down and stop. This woman decided to slow down nearly to a stop in the middle of the lane, and then pull over to the side. Here you can see that the brake light is on, she’s nearly to the point where she has to put her foot down and there is nothing in front of her to make her have to stop like this in the middle of the road. Oh well, in Taiwan, driving rules are nothing more than a suggestion.
I’ll have some more dashcam photos for you in the future, I’m sure!
Are they as bad as Thai drivers?
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Brunty, nothing is as bad as Thai drivers! in Taiwan we don’t have throngs of kids riding motorcycles.
MJ, when I see kids that are maybe 7 or 8 riding a motorbike with younger siblings on it with them, I really shudder. But no-one else blinks an eye.
Kids have no fear and think they are invincible, they don’t have life experience. I have seen a child of maybe three dead on the side of the road, next to her mother also deceased.
People here say to me, “Thai people are poor and this is their only way of transport.”
So endangering the lives of innocent children is okay, letting kids ride motorbikes is fine as it has been done here forever. Thais and their way of thinking really bewilders me at times.
As you said MJ, 500 baht now or 1,000 baht tomorrow. Always the same answer.
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hi Brunty. yeah i’ve heard the poor excuse before – it doesn’t cut it. i believe that i told you about the time i was riding a motorcycle and just before i was about to turn right, a pair of young kids on another motorcycle passed me on the right, so close that their handlebar touched mine! if i had dived into that turn just a few seconds earlier, someone would have been dead. no helmets on the kids either. just malignantly stupid. you said “Thais and their way of thinking really bewilders me” but i say that there isn’t any thinking going on. it’s the opposite of thinking – it’s ignoring reality that’s going on. thanks Brunty.
I’d be interested to know more about your video camera set up. Did you buy a “system” or did you buy an HD video camera and set it up yourself? Having a video camera in your car is definitely a smart move. I expect they’ll be equipped as standard in many cars in the not-to-distant future.
hi John. i bought the F500HD camera from this company: http://www.dod-tec.com/zh-tw/product.php after i used it for a couple of weeks i bought an adapter that gives it a wider angle field of view at 120 degrees. there is a model that is 120 degrees out of the box though. at times i wish i had 180 degrees but that would end up being too “fish eyed” to be useful. the truth is, there is so much going on to the sides and aft that i sometimes wish i had 4 cameras! hope this helps.
Thanks for the info. You’re right about lots going on all sides! There are videos on YouTube of accidents in Taiwan filmed using these types of dashcam cameras [ http://youtu.be/blmitz5Gh8I (no affiliation, honest!) ] and quite a few of them involve getting side-swiped.
John, i’ve seen some of those videos and they are scary! thanks for the link!