The first three days of the dangerous New Year travel week has seen 1,633 accidents, 182 deaths and 1,690 injured with the highest death toll in Khon Kaen province and the greatest number of accidents and injuries in Chiang Mai province.
Assistant national police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapat said on Sunday that there were 643 road accidents on Saturday, with 83 deaths and 667 injuries.
The most common cause of the accidents -- 40.90% -- was drunk driving. and another 27.22% resulted from speeding. Most of the vehicles involved in the accidents were motorcycles -- 74.74% -- followed by pickup trucks at 11.66%.
Officials at checkpoints arrested 165,093 traffic rule violators. A total of 45,652 were not wearing crash helmets and 42,649 were not able to produce a driving licence.
The highest death tolls on Saturday were reported in Chiang Mai and Buri Ram provinces, where 25 people died in each province.
From Thursday to Saturday, there were 1,633 accidents, compared with 1,702 in the same period of last year. The death toll stood at 182 (up from 167) and 1,690 people were injured (compared with 1,793 year-on-year).
The highest number of accidents -- 55 -- and the highest number of injuries -- 60 -- were reported in the northern province of Chiang Mai. The highest death toll -- 11 -- was in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen.