“Seven Days of Danger’ leaves 6 dead, 76 injured

PHUKET: The road toll in Phuket during the holiday season “seven days of danger”, from midnight December 28 to midnight last night, stands at six dead and 76 people injured in a total of 72 accidents, Phuket Vice-Governor Tri Augkaradacha was told today.

Of the accidents reported during the period, two-thirds were attributed to alcohol and almost all of them involved motorcycles.

The announcement was made at a meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall comprising officers from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket) and Phuket Provincial Heath Office and Phuket City Police Traffic Inspector Lt Col Teerawat Leamsuwan.

At the meeting it was reported that the sixth victim during the period was Bunlue Na-Thalang, 75, who died on January 3 after his motorcycle fitted with a sidecar and a Toyota car collided at 6.10 pm at the U-turn in front of Thalang Post Office. K. Bunlue died at the scene,

During the road-safety campaign, 62,013 motorists were stopped at the nine checkpoints on the island manned by a total of 342 officers, with 12,180 motorists charged with violations.

The most common charge was driving without a license (4,780 cases), followed by driving while not wearing a seatbelt (2,203), riding a motorcycle without a helmet (2,052), drunk driving (2,030) and riding a motorcycle deemed unsafe by police (1,115).

Some 78% of accidents during the period were at night, with 74.67% of them occurring on state highways.

V/Gov Tri said, “We were more prepared this year – our campaign was more extensive and we had more checkpoints than last year – but we still could not decrease the death toll during the period.”

During the same period last year, three people died and 32 people were injured in 35 reported accidents.

“During the first two days of the ‘seven days of danger’, two foreigners died, that’s why we have to step up our road-safety campaign for during Songkran, the next long holiday in Thailand,” V/Gov Tri warned.