Phuket switches to ‘seven days of family happiness’ to boost road safety

Phuket is taking a fresh approach to road safety during the forthcoming festive season.

The island is rebranding its annual Seven Days of Danger campaign as Seven Days of Family Happiness in a bid to reduce accidents, injuries, and fatalities on its roads.

The revised campaign was announced during a press conference yesterday, December 14, presided over by Sattha Thongkham, the Vice Governor of Phuket. The conference was also attended by Udomphon Kan, the head of the Phuket Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office, and representatives from local government agencies.

The meeting followed another conference held on December 13, which was chaired by Udomphon and focused on strategies to minimise accidents and injuries during the busy holiday period.

The Seven Days of Family Happiness campaign comprises two main elements. The first is an ongoing public relations awareness drive, which started on December 1 and will run until December 21. This initiative will include various campaigns promoting key messages about road safety.

The second part of the campaign is the road safety operational period, which will run from December 22 until January 11 next year. This period is further divided into two phases, from December 22 to 28 and January 5 to 11. The seven days between these two phases, from December 29 to January 4, will see a heightened focus on road safety enforcement.

The campaign will also focus on five key areas: safety management; reducing road and environmental risk factors; reducing vehicle risk factors; road user safety; and post-accident assistance. It is hoped that these preventative measures will lead to a drop in traffic accidents.

Drink-driving campaign

Alongside the change in slogan, the campaign will also place extra emphasis on drink-driving. A new don’t drink, don’t drive slogan will be introduced to tackle this issue. Acknowledging the potential impact of later licensing hours for pubs and clubs, officials said they believe the laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to individuals under 20 years of age and those already intoxicated, as well as the provision of sobering-up areas, could help reduce drink-driving incidents, reported Phuket News.

The campaign also plans to increase road safety efforts for tourists, as the majority of foreign tourists who die in road accidents in Phuket are from Russia or the United States. The campaign will focus on common offences committed by tourists, including not wearing a helmet while riding a motorbike; drink-driving; not wearing a seat belt; not having a correct driver’s license; speeding; driving through traffic lights; overtaking cars in dangerous areas of the road; driving in reverse; and using a mobile phone while driving.

In addition, the campaign will target vehicle rental companies, creating a database of rental operators and enforcing car rental regulations. Currently, there are 194 rental operators in Phuket, offering a total of 2,429 vehicles, including 715 cars and 1,714 motorbikes.