Crime
410 Dead, 3,516 injuries and 3,425 Accidents as of Day Six of Thailand’s “Seven Dangerous Days”
BANGKOK – Thailand’s Road Safety Directing Centre has reported that six days into the”seven dangerous days” the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department’s Road Safety Centre (Thai RSC) announced a tally of 410 deaths and 3,516 injuries in 3,425 road accidents.
The seven-day period started on Dec 27 and ends on Wednesday night. The final statistics will be released on Thursday.
Lt-General Somsak Somrak, secretarial representative of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), told the press later that the highest number of deaths had been reported in Nakhon Ratchasima at 24, while Nakhon Si Thammarat reported the highest number of road accidents (109) and the highest number of people injured (127).
On New Year’s Day alone, there were 664 road accidents, which claimed 89 lives and injured 675 others, he said. Drunk driving remains the main cause at 43.22 per cent, followed by speeding at 31.48 per cent.
In a separate press conference, NCPO deputy spokeswoman Colonel Sirichan Nga-thong said 4,545 vehicles (3,338 motorcycles and 1,207 automobiles) had been seized from drunk drivers from December 27 to January 1.
Meanwhile, Probation Department chief Prasarn Mahaleetrakul reported that Thai courts had during the same period put offenders in 6,390 cases on probation – 5,903 of them were drunk drivers, 446 drove under the influence of narcotics, 39 were guilty of reckless driving and two of speeding. On January 1 alone, 119 drunk-drivers were put on probation, he added.