The Interior Ministry has asked local administrators to come up with more effective measures to prevent road accidents during the annual Songkran festival.

Road accidents kill 22,000 people per year in Thailand — 65 a day on average — and cause a high number of life-changing injuries with losses amounting to about 10 million baht per case, Deputy Interior Minister Niphon Bunyamanee said on Tuesday.

Mr Niphon said the high death and injury toll is mostly caused by drunk driving and lack of safety precautions. Hence road-safety measures should be boosted and implemented more strictly both on holidays and normal days.

“Thailand has 500,000 kilometres of roads, but 400,000km are located in rural areas. So I want more cooperation from local administrations in overseeing local roads and barring users who violate traffic laws, as this could help cut the death toll significantly, especially during festivals like Songkran when people celebrate by drinking,” he said.