On the Second Day of New Years Holiday 74 Killed in 586 Road Accidents

The Road Safety Directing Centre reported Thursday 74 people died and 576 others were injured in 586 road accidents in Thailand on Wednesday.

Suphat Champathong, permanent-secretary of education, told a press conference Nakhon Ratchasima had the highest figures with five deaths and 32 people injured in 26 accidents.

The period of Dec 29–Jan 4 is dubbed the “New Year’s Seven Dangerous Days”, and a total of 1,000 accidents have been recorded for the first two days with 117 deaths and 1,014 people injured.

There has been no traffic accident in 26 provinces so far, Mr Suphat said.

Most of the accidents were caused by either drunk driving or speeding, he said, noting 82.03% of the cases involved motorcycles while 28% of the accidents took place between 4–8pm.

There are 1,927 checkpoints set up nationwide, he said, adding over 351,900 vehicles have been checked.

Almost 62,600 people have faced legal action, including 19,102 for failing to wear a helmet and 16,135 for not having a driver’s license, Mr Suphat added.

Life and death on Thailand’s lethal roads

Thailand’s roads are the deadliest in Southeast Asia and among the worst in the world, according to the World Health Organisation. About 20,000 people die in road accidents each year, or about 56 deaths a day.

Despite a myriad of government measures to reduce road casualties, they show no sign of abating.

There is a ritual that is now very familiar to Thais, before the two big holiday seasons of the year, in late December for the new year, and in April for the Songkran Festival.

Sometimes good citizens will run publicity stunts, like the coffin-maker, who last year invited journalists to film the huge stockpile his workers were building up for the holiday season. And every year these efforts fail.

The grim statistics of death and injury on the roads are tallied each day in the media with, as often as not, worse figures than the year before.