Lessons to be learnt from Phuket initiatives that have halved road accidents

In the previous decade, 1997-2006, Phuket was among Thailand’s five worst provinces in terms of death and injury resulting from road accidents. 
The dramatic reduction in accidents and casualties has been credited to a focus on accident-prone locations (where crashes were cut by 30 per cent), strict law enforcement using high-tech devices such as speed guns, breathalysers and cameras at intersections (leading to 10 times more drunk drivers arrested in 2016), and an efficient network of multidisciplinary emergency response teams.
The government meanwhile has ordered additional efforts in safety management, road infrastructure, vehicle safety and post-crash care and remedial measures.
Public Health Ministry chief inspector-general Dr Supakit Sirilak said on Thursday these initiatives are in response to directives issued for the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020), which seek a 50-per-cent reduction in road fatalities. 
Supakit was addressing journalists on a tour of three “road-safety model areas” in Phuket. 
He said updates on road safety now come mainly from the Royal Thai Police, death certificates issued and provided by the Interior and Public Health ministries, and Bangkok-based Road Accident Victims Protection Co Ltd. 
Last year saw 22,356 Thais killed in road accidents, a ratio of 34.4 per 100,000 population, Supakit said.
Three-quarters of the victims were male, and most victims were between 15 and 26 years old. 
An estimated 5,000 Thais are maimed or disabled in road crashes every year, he said.
Supakit stressed that Thailand must tackle the problem and shed its notorious ranking among the 10 countries with the highest number of deaths on the roads.
Phuket formed a provincial working team made up of concerned agencies, including the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. The team produced accurate and clear analysis that led to more effective solutions that contributed to halving the crash deaths but also further reduced road injuries by 3.5 percent and road deaths by 8.8 per cent in 2016, said Foundation manager Supreeda Adulyanon.
More work needs to be done, he said, pointing to the 2,332 new cars that daily roll onto Thailand’s roads. The country has 35 million registered cars, and no more than two speed-detecting devices per province.
“One-fifth of drivers believed they could still drive after drinking and one-third admitted to having driven while drunk in the past year,” Supreeda said. “So every day 8-10 people died in road crashes involving drunk drivers.”
Thailand has been praised by the World Health Organisation as a model in post-crash care, said Dr Kamnuan Ungchusak, a committee member of the Foundation. This year, Phuket’s emergency health system had 101 ambulances, 32 operation points and 650 emergency medicine officials, he said. The result – 79.2 per cent of accidents saw medical aid arriving within 10 minutes after a crash report.
Dr Thaweesak Nopkesorn said Krathu Municipality won Prime Minister’s Road Safety Award in 2015 after implementing key policies to reduce the accident death toll. Krathu identified and made changes to locations with a high accident risk, installed needed traffic lights, removed signs blocking drivers’ vision. 
It also had “thesakij” officials arrested, fined drivers for risky behaviours such as truck drivers leaving a trail of loose rocks on the road and launched campaigns to boost public awareness of road safety, he said.