Fewer tragedies during holiday week
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The holiday week this New Year has so far seen less slaughter on the streets than last year. On the first six of the seven dangerous days of the holiday period, 314 people died and 3,116 were injured in 2,856 road |accidents nationwide - down by 11 death
Buri Ram suffered the most number of fatalities among provinces with 18 deaths, while Nakhon Sawan recorded the most injuries at 110 and |also the most accidents at 104, Pol Lt-General Borihan Siang-arom, assistant National Police chief, told a press conference.
Only 10 provinces were free from road deaths – Satun, Nonthaburi, Nong Khai, Udon Thani, Si Sa Ket, Yala, Trat, Sukhothai, Tak and Pattani.
The statistics on the sixth day showed a marked improvement over last year. On Tuesday alone, 312 accidents killed 32 people and wounded 333. This was better by 9.83 per cent or 34 accidents, 27.27 per cent or 12 deaths and 8.01 per cent or 29 injuries.
The major cause of accidents was drunk driving at 28.2 per cent, followed by speeding at 20.5 per cent. Motorcycles were involved in 78.7 per cent of the crashes.
The 70,036 officials manning 2,466 checkpoints stopped 695,066 vehicles and arrested 94,502 traffic offenders – mostly for failing to wear helmets at 29,774 cases, he added.
As the rush to return to work in Bangkok was mostly over, business at Nakhon Ratchasima’s Bus Terminal 2 yesterday was back to normal, but up to 20,000 travellers – most of whom took another day off to avoid traffic jams – were still expected to use its services.
