Tragic road death in Phuket after young man hits reduce speed sign

A tragic road death occurred in Phuket after a young man hit a reduced-speed sign with his motorbike on Sunday. The incident happened on Thepkrasattri Road southbound in Tambon Thepkassattri at 7.40am, The Phuket News reported.

Rescuers arrived on the scene to find the victim, 24 year old Thanongsak Raiyai, lying dead near his motorbike. Thanongsak’s neck was broken, and he had died instantly, police said.

Thanongsak’s passenger, 30 year old Piyaporn Kittikulnatee, was found injured and rushed to a hospital.

Thalang Police said that Thanongsak had just returned to Phuket from his home in Krabi. They said he lost control of his motorbike and hit the sign on the side of the road, according to their initial investigation.

Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the accident.

Since the start of this year, Phuket has seen 25 people killed and 4,230 injured in road accidents, according to the Thailand Road Safety Committee (ThaiRSC).

Just last week, another man was also killed in a motorbike crash in Thalang district. According to witnesses, two motorbikes were travelling in the same direction when they lost control and crashed. A 51 year old man was killed, while a 24 year old man was injured.

On February 15, an elderly German man died in a motorbike crash in Pattaya. He had reportedly crashed his motorbike while navigating a curve.

ThaiRSC reported in January that as many as 939,713 road accidents were reported in Thailand last year, up 4.7% from 2021. Road accidents killed 14,737 people, and injured 924,799 last year, ThaiRSC said. The committee reported that 536 deaths and 7,885 injuries were among foreigners.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department’s Road Safety Centre reported 2,440 road accidents during the annual “7 dangerous days” (December 29 to January 4) when people head to their hometowns to mark the new year.

During this time there were 2,437 injuries and 317 deaths, with Surat Thani having the highest number of accidents at 79 and Kanchanaburi with the highest number of injuries at 81. Chiang Rai recorded the most deaths at 15.