New Year's road deaths jump to 340; 3,216 hurt

The death toll from road accidents jumped to 340 and the number of wrecks to more than 3,000 after the sixth of the “seven dangerous days” of the New Year’s holiday season, says PM’s Office Minister Panadda Disakul.

The accumulated road accidents from Dec 29-Jan 3 stood at 3,092 with 3,216 injuries, ML Panadda said on Monday, quoting statistics from the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.

On Sunday, 48 people were killed and 361 injured in 339 accidents across the country, said ML Panadda.

Chiang Mai had the highest number of total crashes at 125 and the highest number of injuries, also at 125. Nakhon Ratchasima recorded the highest number of deaths at 15, he said.

Drink-driving remained the major cause of road wrecks at 19.8%, followed by speeding at 16.2%.

Just less than 80% of all crashes involved motorcycles and 68.7% occurring on major roads. The peak time for accidents was 4-8pm. Most of the dead and injured were of working age, or 51.26%, according to the department's report.

Meanwhile, National Council for Peace and Order deputy spokeswoman Sirichan Nga-thong said on Monday that police and soldiers manning road checkpoints across the country so far had impounded 4,052 vehicles from drink drivers between Dec 25  and Jan 3 as part of the New Year's road-safety campaign.

The seized vehicles included 3,032 motorcycles and 1,020 cars, said Col Sirichan.

Authorities also took action against 23,703 motorcyclists and 9,432 drivers of public and private vehicles during the 10-day anti-drink-driving campaign.

On Sunday alone, there were 3,098 violations of the ban involving motorcycles, with 555 bike impounded and 2,013 motorcyclists facing legal action, she said.

There were 1,633 violations of the ban involving public and private vehicles on the same day. A total of 172 driving licenses and 451 vehicles seized and 970 drivers face legal action.

The NCPO thanked soldiers, police officers and local officials for their cooperation in reducing reduce road accidents and the council would start returning the impounded vehicles to their owners on Tuesday, said the spokeswoman.

Earlier, Army chief Theerachai Nakwanich ordered soldiers to launch a holiday road safety campaign.

Troops and police are arresting people found to be driving while drunk and seized their vehicles. The seized cars and motorcycles can be reclaimed after the New Year period.

Pol Gen Detnarong Suthicharnbancha said there were almost 3 million people travelling during the holidays and they mostly set off on their trips between Dec 29 and Jan 1, resulting in frequent accidents.

Although authorities have taken measures to impound vehicles from drink drivers, the number of deaths from road accidents have not dropped, said Pol Gen Detnarong.