New Year road death toll peaks at 423
The seven-day monitoring period for road accidents during the New Year holidays ended Wednesday with 423 deaths and 4,005 injuries in 3,841 accidents, Deputy Interior Minister Sutee Markboon said on Thursday.
Sutee held a press conference at the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department to announce the statistics compiled by the centre as part of its programme to prevent and reduce road accidents during New Year holidays.
On the final day of the monitoring period on Wednesday, 386 accidents occurred, killing 40 people and injuring 402 others, Sutee said.
The centre set up 2,001 road checkpoints around the country staffed by 64,993 officials. A total of 730,769 vehicles were checked and action was taken against 124,034 motorists and motorcyclists for violating traffic laws during the seven day period, he said. Of those, 36,487 were caught riding motorcycles without helmets and 31,721 driving without a licence.
Sutee said Udon Thani emerged the province with the highest number of accidents at 139.
Nakhon Ratchasima had the highest number of deaths at 17.
The provinces with no deaths were Chainat, Nakhon Nayok, Narathiwat, Nan, Yala, Ranong and Nong Bua Lamphu.