Tougher law enforcement ordered

Over the first three of the seven dangerous days, 173 people died and 1,526 were injured in road accidents caused mainly by drunk driving.
Charupong told a meeting of the Road Safety Centre that the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation had recorded 655 accidents on Saturday, which was down 10 per cent from last year, but deaths had soared 28 per cent to 72.
Drunk driving was the major cause of accidents at 46 per cent followed by speeding at 24 per cent. Motorcycles were involved in 82 per cent of accidents and pickup trucks in 10 per cent.
 

Not wearing a helmet was the top risk behaviour. About 22 per cent of accidents were on straight roads, 66 per cent on village roads and 38 per cent on highways. The most dangerous time of the day was 4-8pm. Some 54 per cent of the casualties were workers. About 68,970 police manned 2,339 checkpoints, stopped 719,010 vehicles and charged 123,770 people with traffic offences, of whom 37,420 did not wear safety helmets and 34,936 could not produce a driver’s licence.
Nakhon Si Thammarat had the most accidents at 25 and the most injured at 27 people, followed by Suphan Buri with five accidents.
Before chairing a videoconference of 76 governors, Charupong said he would have local officials stage public awareness campaigns to make people drive more carefully during the last two days of Songkran.
Officials would not be taken to task for the rise in casualties as they were already doing their best but they must strictly enforce the ban against alcohol sales, especially by street vendors, he said.
Chatchai Promlert, director-general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, said that statistics showed accidents were more severe this year. The weather bureau also warned of tropical storms in the North and Northeast that would make roads more slippery.
Dr Chonlanan Srikaew, a deputy public health minister, said this year’s accidents were more severe than last year. Of the 1,321 seriously injured, 67 per cent died at the scene and 43 per cent in hospital emergency rooms.
The ministry has instructed its officials across the country to coordinate with local police to enforce the prohibition against alcohol sales more thoroughly and initiate campaigns urging the public to call 1669 hotline when they come across accidents, as the ministry has 15,000 emergency medical teams standing by to offer assistance.
Pol Colonel Thongchai Bunsombat, superintendent of Samre Police Station, admitted that a team of his officers returned fire at a gang of 10 motorcycle racers during a chase. Massayabun Maneewong, 39, who was shot in the stomach by a stray bullet at her stall on King Taksin Road on the Thon Buri side, died later.