Death toll rises to 146 in first three days of deadly road-accident week
Almost 50 people a day were killed in vehicle accidents during the first three of the so-called “seven dangerous days”, the Road Safety Centre announced at a press conference on Sunday.
Another 1,182 people were injured in the 1,183 accidents reported over the three days, an average of about 400 injuries a day, the centre said.
The press conference was held at the office of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, and led by its chief, Chotenarin Kerdsom, who is also deputy permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry.
Chotenarin reminded reporters that road accidents surge during the seven days from December 29 to January 4.
The number of deaths rose to 59 on Saturday, he said. An additional 467 people were injured in the 466 road accidents reported that day, he said. On Friday, 48 people were killed and 363 were injured in 366 accidents, Chotenarin said.
The two major causes of accidents are speeding and drunk driving, according to the centre’s data. Chotenarin released the following statistics for Saturday.
- 466 road accidents, 467 injuries, and 59 deaths
- Major causes of accidents: speeding (36.70%) and drunk driving (30.04%)
- Percentage of motorcycles involved in accidents: 82.56%
- Percentage of accidents on straight sections of roads: 80.90%
- Hour with the highest rate of accidents: 6pm to 7pm (7.74%)
- Age of victims most likely to be involved in an accident: 20 to 29 years old (19.39%)
Chotenarin said the high number of accidents occurred despite increased monitoring of roads.
On Saturday, 56,205 officials from several agencies manned 1,878 checkpoints around the country and stopped 424,745 vehicles.
Legal action was taken against 67,203 motorists and motorcyclists, Chotenarin said, adding: 18,964 were charged with driving without a license, 18,116 were charged for riding a motorcycle without a helmet, and 8,497 were charged with speeding.
Surat Thani province recorded the highest number of accidents and victims. Twenty people were injured in 19 accidents in the province on Saturday. Chiang Rai had the highest death toll from road accidents on Saturday, with seven people killed.
After three days of the deadliest week for road accidents, only 18 of Thailand’s 77 provinces reported no deaths. Surat Thani had the most accidents (42), Sakon Nakhon reported the most injuries (46), and Chiang Rai had the highest number of deaths (10).
Related story:
