PHOTO: Daily News The chief of the communications ministry says that the Thai authorities are aiming for a 10% reduction in accidents on selected and particularly dangerous roads. They also want to see a 5% reduction in the country’s total number of road accidents. They have identified 111 roads around the country deemed as high risk for road fatalities that will receive special attention from police during the holiday break.
Songkran is a celebration of the Thai New Year on April 13 each year.
by Suriya Patathayo, Jessada Chantharak Songkran foam parties are being banned this year in the interest of public safety. The announcement today from the national police deputy commissioner Pol General Chalermkiat Srivorakan.Chalermkiat says there had been several deaths and injuries by electrocution at foam parties during previous Songkran festivals.
Thailand’s cabinet has decided to waive tolls on the Bangkok-Pattaya and Bangkok-Bang Pa-in-Bang Phli motorways starting April 10 until midnight on April 18. This takes in the main Songkran break between April 12 – 14 and the annual ‘seven days of danger’. A Cabinet spokesperson say that a large number of people are expected to leave Bangkok for the provinces during the annual Songkran festival, so the cabinet decided to waive the toll fees to make travel a bit easier and less expensive.
SCREENSHOT: GamerGirl566 (video below) Police are not going to impose restrictions for people riding in the back of pickup trucks over the Songkran holidays this April. The national deputy police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul has said it’s OK for passengers to ride in the tray space at the back of pick-ups “as long as they are deemed safe”.
Six days official reporting down and Phuket’s road toll remains at one.
Drunk driving remains the major cause of road fatalities after the Songkran ‘Seven Days of Danger’ toll reached a staggering 323 people killed on Thailand’s roads (after the first five days of reporting). 3,140 others were injured in 3,001 crashes during the first five days of the Songkran seven-day accident-monitoring period – From last Wednesday morning to Sunday night
Two days left for the official reports for the Songkran ‘Seven Days of Danger’ and Phuket’s road toll remains at just one – a Chinese tourist who crashed on a rented bike last Saturday on the Kamala – Patong road when he hit a pickup truck heading in the opposite direction.
The NCPO is claiming that officials have seized 10,099 cars and motorcycles, and arrested 113,450 drivers of motorcycles, and 69,898 drivers of public transport vehicles and private cars for drink driving during the first four days of the seven day reporting period for Songkran, April 11-15. That’s an astonishing 183,348 people arrested for drink driving over just four days this Songkran holiday. Reporting in Thai PBS, an NCPO deputy spokesperson Colonel Sirichan Ngathong says that of the 10,099 vehicles seized, 7,372 are motorcycles and 2,727 are cars
In just the first two days of the Songkran “seven days of danger” from April 11-17, a total of 99 people have already been killed in traffic accidents, with another 1,085 injured. The road accident count for the beginning days of the notorious Songkran accident period have increased compared to the same period last year, while nearly 60,000 drunk drivers have been arrested by the end of the second day of strict road safety monitoring. The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department’s Road Safety Centre on Friday reported a total 1,026 road accidents occurred during the first two days of the reporting period, leaving 1,085 people injured and 99 killed.