7 Dangerous Days: 226 road deaths, 1915 accidents in 4 days

On the fourth day of what the Road Safety Directing Centre of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation has labelled the Seven Dangerous Days, 73 people lost their lives in 574 road accidents, up slightly from yesterday. A total of 226 people have died on the roads of Thailand since December 30 with deaths being reported now in 42 of the 77 provinces in the country.

Bangkok had 6 fatalities yesterday, the most of any province. People between the ages of 30 and 49 were the most common demographic for road deaths, with 17% of all fatalities falling in that age range.

The period around the New Year’s holiday has more people on the road and more injuries, deaths and accidents as a result. Authorities caution motorists to drive with care and follow all traffic rules with checkpoints set up across the country to ticket people who don’t comply.

574 people sustained injuries in road accidents yesterday, making a total of 1,894 people hurt in crashes over the past 4 days. Kanchanaburi had the most injuries of any province, 31 in total, while also having the most accidents with 24 crashes.

574 accidents were reported yesterday, bringing the 4-day total to 1,915 road incidents across all of Thailand. The figures are nearly 19% lower than the same 4 days last year, with deaths down over 20% as well.

While speeding is usually the number one cause of road accidents during this time period, yesterday 35.71% of accidents were due to excessive speed while 37.28% were attributed to drunk driving. This is likely due to the number of intoxicated drivers leaving New Year’s Eve events in the wee hours of yesterday as 25.96% of all accidents yesterday happened between 3 am and 6 am, more than any other time period.

At least one motorbike was involved in the vast majority of road accidents, 89.27% of all crashes in Thailand yesterday. Nearly 38% of accidents were on national highways and almost 37% were on local roads in villages and subdistricts.

1,890 Traffic checkpoints around the country staffed by over 42,000 police officers inspected over 419,000 people driving. A whopping 24,279 people were cited for not wearing helmets on their motorbikes, a significant increase over the previous days. 21,815 were cited for driving without a license as well.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post