Drunk Driving in Southeast Asia is a real issue. A video recent emerged showing a man so drunk that he simply cannot keep his motorbike on the road raises more than a few questions. The video on the Pattaya Shore website demonstrates a huge problem. I think we all know that attitudes are more relaxed here, and for most that is a large part of the appeal of Asia. Spend a few years in the West and the constant interfering with personal lives by the state, does start to wear this. But Surely few people can argue that this guy should be on the road. Drunk Driving in Southeast Asia is reaching epidemic proportions.
I find it staggering that the people filming, simply found it amusing. They even help him after he falls off. What they should have done is taken the keys out of the bike and dropped them off with the first cop they found. Even at the ludicrously slow speed he was travelling, he is still more than a little dangerous.
Films are cropping up at regular intervals showing people so drunk that they can’t stand up, never mind control a motorbike. It seems to be a problem right across the region. This one happens to be in Thailand, but I have seen worse in Vietnam. Earlier this year, I saw a guy seemingly so drunk that he was asleep on his bike. As he slipped off the seat he accelerated. I rode along side him trying to wake him up. But he entered the car only lane, slammed into the kerb and hit the ground right in front of me. He was killed.
It seems to be an education thing. But as long as people simply find drunk driving in Southeast Asia funny, this is going to continue and the carnage will carry on.