Songkran safety campaign Day 2: 357 road accidents, 30 deaths

On the second day of the Songkran road safety campaign, officials report 30 deaths, 374 injuries and 357 road accidents, up slightly from yesterday. The week of Songkran is infamous for increased traffic incidents and is often referred to as “7 dangerous days”, prompting government officials to push a campaign to raise awareness and safety this holiday. This year the usual 7 days of danger are more like 10 days+.

DAILY FIGURES
Sunday recorded 357 separate incidents resulting in 374 injuries and 30 deaths across Thailand. 87% of the road accidents involved motorbikes, while once again speeding and drink driving were the leading causes of crashes, accounting for 34% and 24% respectively. 58% of accidents were on straight roads and 40% of crashes occurred on highways. 41% were in local community villages.

For the second day in a row, the majority of crashes took place in the late afternoon to early evening, with 27% of road accidents happening between 4 pm and 8 pm.

Roi Et was the province with the most accidents, 16 total. Nakhon Sri Thammarat had 20 injuries, the most of any province. Trang and Samut Prakan each had 3 deaths making them yesterday’s most deadly provinces.

TOTALS
After 2 days of the “7 dangerous days”, there have been a total of 56 deaths and 729 injuries reported from a total of 705 road accidents around the country. Nakhon Si Thammarat now holds the unenviable record of most accidents, with a total of 27 so far.

The southern province also reported the most injuries, tied only with neighbouring Surat Thani, both having 31 injuries. Bangkok and Samut Prakan are tied with 4 deaths each.

These numbers are lower than average for Thailand, mostly due to the sheer reduction of travel because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully the “Happy Songkran, Safe driving, Stay safe from Covid-19” campaign will encourage people to stay safe and keep these figures low.

SOURCE: The Pattaya News