Road accidents: what section 78 actually requires, and the por ror bor claim

Section 78 of the Road Traffic Act B.E. 2522 (1979) obliges any driver who causes damage — at fault or not — to stop, render appropriate assistance, present themselves to the nearest competent official without delay, and give name, address and registration number to the injured party. Contrary to forum lore, the law does not say vehicles must stay untouched; what it punishes is leaving. A driver who flees or fails to report is legally presumed to be the offender and the vehicle can be seized (s. 78), with penalties under s. 160 of up to three months' jail or a 2,000–10,000 baht fine, rising to six months and 5,000–20,000 baht where someone is seriously hurt or killed. In practice, for injury accidents wait for police; for minor scrapes Thais photograph everything and call their insurer's hotline, whose claims surveyor comes to the scene.

Every registered vehicle must carry compulsory victim cover — the por ror bor — under s. 7 of the Protection for Motor Vehicle Accident Victims Act B.E. 2535 (1992); an owner without it faces a fine of up to 10,000 baht (s. 37). Its point is speed: the insurer must pay preliminary compensation for medical or funeral costs within seven days of the request, without waiting for fault to be determined (ss. 20, 25), and the victim must lodge that request within 180 days of the damage (s. 27). Hit-and-run and uninsured-vehicle victims claim from the state Victims Compensation Fund instead (s. 23). It covers people, not property — vehicle damage is the voluntary insurer's problem.