Is Pai Thailand safe, or is it really the road there that people mean?

The town rarely comes up in these questions. The mountain road and the scooters do. Road traffic, and motorcycles in particular, is the risk that puts visitors in hospital in Thailand rather than crime, and that part is sourced: https://meetlocale.com/guides/is-thailand-safe-to-travel-alone What no official source describes is the specific stretch people found difficult, or how the minivan compares to riding it yourself. If you have made that trip, how did you travel it, and what would you tell somebody deciding between the two?