Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday he was not happy with the road accident figures during the Songkran festival, although the number of casualties was lower when compared with last year's.
Gen Prayut said that even though the Songkran holiday proceeded without incident, he was not satisfied with the figures of road accidents which caused deaths and injuries.
He insisted the government had implemented all necessary measures to improve road safety and added that growing calls for harsher legal actions would have to be carefully examined.
He also called on motorists to take steps to strictly observe traffic laws and regulations, including wearing seat belts or crash helmets and avoiding drink-driving.
He also thanked authorities for their efforts in tightening road safety measures.
"Drink-driving is to blame in most cases. We have the laws against all of these but ultimately it's about having awareness and putting your personal and your family's safety first," he said.
Driving over the speed limit and drink-driving remained the top two causes of accidents, while motorcycles topped the list of types of vehicles involved in accidents.
Drink-driving accounted for 38% of the road accidents over the six days since the "seven dangerous days" road safety campaign started last Thursday, while speeding accounted for 27.4% of the accidents.
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon also echoed the prime minister's views about the holiday road toll, saying that as long as there were still losses of life, the road safety campaign was a failure.
Five provinces have reported no road fatalities on the sixth day of this year's Songkran holidays on Tuesday, as the "seven dangerous days" road safety campaign reached its final day yesterday.
The Road Safety Directing Centre reported that Trang, Phangnga, Mae Hong Son, Sukhothai and Ang Thong provinces have recorded no deaths since the safety campaign for the Thai New Year holidays started.
Nakhon Ratchasima and Udon Thani had the highest death tolls with 15 people each, while Chiang Mai had the most accidents, with 119.
The government set up about 2,000 checkpoints and deployed more than 65,000 officials and volunteers on roads across the country to curb traffic violations and reduce the number of accidents during the festivities.