Chiang Rai Province “Number One for Drunk Driving Arrests” as of the 5th Day of Songkran

CHIANG RAI – The accumulated death toll on the 5th day of “Songkran’s  7 dangerous days” has risen to 323, with 3,140 people hospitalized in over 3,000 road accidents across the Nation, according to the Road Safety Centre  Monday.

On Sunday alone, sixty-nine people were killed and 589 hospitalized in 552 road accidents nationwide, said Damrong Limapirak, adviser to the Education Ministry, citing a report from the Road Safety Centre.

This brought the accumulated death toll from April 11 to 15 to 323. Another 3140 were injured in a total of 3,001 road accidents.

Drink-driving was stated to be the major cause of the fatal crashes 42%, followed by speeding at 26%

Motorcycles were involved in the highest number of crashes (78.53%), said Mr Damrong.

178,191 traffic offenders were arrested at 2,031 road checkpoints, including 51,488 motorcyclists without crash helmets and 46,094 people for not carrying a driving license.

With Chiang Rai, Maha Sarakham and Surin topping the list of provinces for drunk drivers caught. Thousands of offenders were immediately slapped with probation and dozens had monitoring devices attached to their ankles to keep them off the roads.

Probation Department director-general Prasarn Mahaleetrakul said on Monday that the five days saw 3,460 motorists arrested and placed on probation across the country.

Four of those cases involved reckless driving, the rest drunk driving.

Chiang Rai clocked up the most drunk-driving cases with 455, followed by Maha Sarakham at 394 and Surin at 313.