Day 5 of Thailand’s “7 Dangerous Days” – Dead 317, Injured 3188

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BANGKOK – The Death toll from traffic accidents during the past five days of the “Seven Dangerous Day” safety driving campaign climbed to 317 with 3,188 injuries.

On Monday (Jan 1), or the fifth day of the campaign to lower traffic accidents, 71 people were killed and 696 others injured in a total 677 cases in a single day.

Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, said drunk driving is the main cause of most fatal accidents or 47.27%, followed by speeding, 26%.

He said motorcycles are still the vehicles that had the most accidents, at 82.45% , followed by pickup trucks (5.18%) while highways and roads with long straight sections recorded the highest fatal accidents (66.62%), and most accidents occurred between midnight to 4 am.

As of Jan 1, Udon Thani has the highest number of traffic accidents (114) and the highest number of injuries (118), while province with the highest number of deaths is Si Sa Ket (13).

As today (Jan 2) is the final day of the four-day New Year holiday and large number of people are returning to Bangkok on all major highways, Dr Opas warned driver of drowsy driving saying they should take rest of they were sleepy.

Meanwhile, Government spokesman Lt-Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Tuesday (Jan 2) that the prime minister also ordered officials to step up security at bus terminals and to watch out for criminal elements who might take advantage of the situation at the terminals to prey on passengers.

He said that a lot of people were returning to Bangkok today, which is the last New Year holidays. As such, he added that police and highway officials were mobilized to man main highways to ensure motorists, especially drivers of public transport, to refrain from speeding and drunk driving.