Two-day holiday road death toll reaches 98

Two-day holiday road death toll reaches 98

Alcohol involved in nearly 40% of all accidents

A Mercedes-Benz with Bangkok licence plates lies in a ditch after striking a tree on Phetkasem Road southbound in Muang district of Prachuap Khiri Khan on Saturday. Driver Kornkrit Sinsuwan, 33, of Nonthaburi, was killed in the crash. Police believe he might have dozed off behind the wheel. (Photo by Chaiwat Sadyaem)
A Mercedes-Benz with Bangkok licence plates lies in a ditch after striking a tree on Phetkasem Road southbound in Muang district of Prachuap Khiri Khan on Saturday. Driver Kornkrit Sinsuwan, 33, of Nonthaburi, was killed in the crash. Police believe he might have dozed off behind the wheel. (Photo by Chaiwat Sadyaem)

The road death toll has reached 98 and number of people injured has passed 1,000 on the first two days of the New Year holiday traffic exodus.

Cumulative road accidents on Dec 27 and 28 stood at 990 with 98 deaths and 1,024 injuries, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Saturday, citing a report from the Road Safety Directing Centre.

On Friday alone, the second of “seven dangerous days” of the holiday season, 56 people were killed and 592 injured in 570 crashes across the country.

Drink-driving remained the major cause of road wrecks at 38.9%, followed by speeding at 28.6%. Motorcycles were involved in 76.7% of all accidents, followed by pickup trucks at 7.7%, said Mr Arkhom.

Chiang Rai had the highest two-day accident total at 33. The northern province was also among the provinces with the most deaths and injuries.  Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai and Lop Buri had five fatalities each, while Chiang Mai and Nakhon Ratchasima had the highest number of injuries with 35 each.

A total of 145,636 traffic offenders were caught at 2,049 road checkpoints on Friday, with 749,821 vehicles stopped for checks. A total of 42,841 offenders were cited for failing to wear crash helmets and 38,912 had no driving licences.

In the seven-day New Year holiday period a year ago, the country recorded a total of 3,841 accidents, with 423 deaths and 4,005 injuries. The accident total was down 1.5% from the year before and deaths declined by 11.5%, authorities said at the time.

Thailand was recently found to have the eighth worst record in the world for road safety, based on fatalities per 100,000 population, in a World Health Organization study. That was actually an improvement from the previous WHO survey when the country was the second-worst in the world, behind only Libya.

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