The authorities are being urged to get tough on drink drivers to curb road accidents during the New Year holidays.
Phrommin Kanthiya, director of the accident reduction network under the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, said yesterday that sleepiness, chatting on mobile phones, drink driving and speeding caused accidents in previous New Year holidays.
The Interior Ministry's Road Safely Directing Centre will watch out for such behaviour, he said.
The centre particularly wants to eliminate drink driving, which was the main cause of accidents during the last New Year holidays. There were 3,174 accidents, with 367 people killed and 3,344 injured, he said. Most accidents involved motorcycles.
Police will be assigned to conduct checks on motorists to find whether their blood alcohol levels are above the limit of 50 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
Violators will face fines of between 5,000 and 20,000 or a prison term of up to one year. Authorities may ask the court to suspend their driving licences for at least six months, Mr Phrommin said.
If drink driving causes accidents which lead to injuries, offenders will face a jail term of up to two years and fines of between 20,000 and 40,000 baht, he said.
If victims are seriously hurt, jail terms will increase to between two and six years and the fines will increase to between 40,000 and 100,000 baht. The courts will be asked to suspend offenders' driving licences for at least one year.
In accidents that cause deaths, violators will face jail terms of up to 10 years and fines of between 60,000 and 200,000 baht.
The anti-accident campaigner said stricter measures against reckless driving are needed to save people's lives and stop the economy being damaged by "motorists who use the same roads as us but don't care about others and take no responsibility".
Accidents incur economic losses of up to 232 billion baht, about 2.8% of the country's GDP, each year, he said.