Motorbike crash on Patong Hill leaves 2 wounded

A motorbike crash on Patong Hill left two people wounded. The incident on Monday occurred on a shortcut road located behind the Tiger Shrine on Patong Hill.

Rescuers and police rushed to the scene to find the two victims down a slope off the road. The victims were a 36 year old man named Wuttisak Puttisarn, from Chalong, and a woman named Siyangrak Pimsamut, from Kata.

Wuttisak had broken ribs, while Siyangrak sustained head injuries, The Phuket Express reported. The rescue team transported them to a nearby hospital.

According to Patong Mayor Chalermsak Maneesri, who later arrived at the scene, this shortcut road is an accident hotspot. Many motorbike riders use this road to get to and from Patong City, he said.

Chalermsak noted that the city was trying to improve the road’s safety, however, he did not specify how.

In March, a tour bus crashed into a power pole on Patong Hill, with the driver suffering serious injuries to his leg. The bus slammed into a power pole on the final curve heading into Patong on Phra Baramee Road. Police and rescuers arrived on the scene to find the red Phiphairat Tour bus beside a roadside concrete wall.

The Thailand Road Safety Committee (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.