New Year period road toll hits 393 after nine days
From December 27 to January 4, there were 2,322 road accidents, killing 393 and injuring 2,251
The accumulated death toll from road accidents during the first nine days of the so-called 10 dangerous New Year holidays was 393 and there were 2,251 injuries, the Road Safety Centre announced on Sunday.
This year, the centre is monitoring road accidents for 10 days instead of seven days as in the past because it expected many would take Thursday and Friday off after the official five-day New Year holidays ended on Wednesday. The centre expected people to start travelling from Friday, December 27, which was not a holiday.
Saharat Wongsakulrat, deputy director general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, told a press conference on Sunday that from December 27 to Saturday, January 4, there had been 2,322 road accidents, killing 393 people and injuring 2,251 others.
Although Bangkok streets were relatively empty during the five-day holiday period as many people travelled to the provinces, the capital surprisingly had the highest accumulated death toll of 24 during the nine days, Saharat said.
Meanwhile, the southern province of Surat Thani had the highest accumulated number of accidents at 86 and highest accumulated number of injuries at 95.
Saharat said violations of speed limits were found to be the biggest cause of accidents (39.32%), followed by abrupt lane changing (21.40%) and drunk driving (20.67%).
Motorcycles remained the vehicles engaged in most road accidents (86.03%), followed by pickups (5.27%) and sedans (3.55%).
On Saturday alone, the ninth day, there were 169 road accidents, killing 23 and injuring 164 other people.
On Saturday, Trang province had the highest number of road accidents at 11, and most injuries at 11. Trang, Nakhon Pathom, Narathiwat, and Uttaradit provinces had the highest number of road deaths with two each on Saturday.
