Centre to study road smashes, offer ways to cut toll
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THE INTERIOR Ministry yesterday opened a Road Safety Centre to oversee road accidents during the New Year period (yesterday until January 5), analyse risk factors and recommend solutions.
Interior Minister General Anupong Paochinda said the centre would not predict a national accident toll. Instead the government would concentrate on avoidance and implement measures such as traffic law reinforcement, trying to limit the sale and consumption of alcohol, and road safety awareness campaigning.
Meanwhile, Public Health permanent secretary Dr Narong Sahamethapat reaffirmed people could call for help with accidents via the 1669 hotline. Emergency medical teams could reach accident scenes or help acutely ill people within 10 minutes of notification, he said.
In related news, 31 people were injured yesterday when a bus transporting 40 Russian tourists swerved to avoid an oncoming sedan before slipping off a curve and plunging into a five-metre-deep ditch in Phuket’s Krathu district.
The driver of the sedan, Tantima Thaworn, 37, was seriously injured, along with 30 passengers from the bus – all were taken to Patong Hospital.
Bus driver Arun Yaemkreu, 46, was slightly hurt. He told police he was taking the Russians from the airport to a hotel when an oncoming sedan overtook another vehicle, prompting him to swerve to avoid it. The bus then plunged into the ditch.
In Sa Kaew’s Khlong Leuk district, a van carrying 10 foreign tourists – Swedish, British, Argentinean and Korean – from Bangkok to the Aranyaprathet border checkpoint, crashed into a tree on Suwannasorn Road yesterday. Van driver Somkiat Surakhosit, 49, was knocked unconscious and admitted to hospital.
The tourists later continued their journey to Cambodia. Police suspect the driver’s blackout resulted from a chronic illness or cardiac arrest after he took an energy drink.
In Nakhon Ratchasima’s Muang district, a three-car pile-up on Mitraparp Highway – in front of Ratchasima Wittayalai School – prompted a bus to swerve across the traffic lane and collide with a pick-up, a motorcycle and a power pole early yesterday. Eleven people were slightly hurt. The accident caused a severe traffic jam up to five kilometres long.
