282 deaths in first six days of Songkran

The number of deaths this Songkran has gone beyond the 229 people killed last Songkran, even though there have been fewer accidents compared to last year’s 2,932, which injured 3,172. The province with the most accidents and injuries this year was Chiang Rai – 116 crashes and 117 injuries – while the provinces with the most number of deaths were Saraburi and Surat Thani at 11 each. 

The 23.14 per cent increase in death rates this year has been blamed on the severity of accidents. The biggest contributing factors have been pickups carrying passengers in the back of the truck, reckless driving, speeding, drunk driving and drivers dozing off behind the wheel. However, accidents involving passenger vans and buses have lowered thanks to the implementation of the RFID system, as well as stricter controls over the condition of the vehicle and state of the driver. 

Chatpong Chatphuti, deputy director-general of the Depart-ment of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, reported at the Road Safety Centre yesterday that on Monday alone 29 people were killed and 308 others injured in 291 accidents mainly due to drunk driving and speeding. About 80 per cent of the accidents involved motorcycles and most of these mishaps took place on open roads. Despite the authorities’ furious campaigning, 2,400 checkpoints found 30,630 motorcyclists without a helmet and 30,039 were caught driving without a licence. 

The centre has divided provinces into colour-coded zones based on road accident deaths over the past six years. The red zone includes seven provinces with more than 40 deaths; the yellow zone has 13 provinces with 31 to 40 deaths; the green zone covers 22 provinces with 16 to 30 deaths; and 25 provinces are included in the white zone with zero to 15 deaths.