Foreign Office campaigns to cut expat road deaths Thailand, a country with 50,000 British residents and over 870,000 British visitors per year, suffered 68,582 incidents resulting in 9,205 deaths involving both Thai residents and tourists in 2011. In contrast 1,901 people were killed in road accidents in the UK that year. After deaths from natural causes, road collisions are the most common cause of death for British nationals in Thailand and cause a high number of hospitalisations. According to FCO staff in Thailand, the majority of them involve motorcycles and scooters. British ambassador to Thailand Mark Kent said: "British nationals using the roads in Thailand should bear in mind that road laws and driving customs here are different from those in the UK, and road conditions, driving standards and road traffic regulations can vary. Road traffic accidents can have a profound effect on both those individuals involved and their families. Accidents do occur and not all tragedies are avoidable, but the outcome could be very different with many lives being saved and critical injuries reduced if people adopted the same safety precautions abroad that they would naturally take at home. I have visited hospitals here and heard from doctors how many deaths could have been avoided by following the law and taking the appropriate precautions, such as safety helmets. You should check that your travel insurance specifically covers you for driving a scooter or any other vehicle abroad. As part of the campaign, the FCO is launching an online tool, available here, to give people access to specific road safety advice for the country they will be driving in.