Thirty-seven people died in road accidents during the Songkran holiday on Wednesday, bringing the accumulative deaths over the past five days to 192.
On Wednesday, 330 road accidents occurred in all but six provinces, injuring 328 people and killing 37, some of whom died in hospitals.
Since the country was in lockdown during the Songkran holiday last year, the Road Safety Director Centre, which keeps track of the numbers, used the 2019 data for comparison purposes this year. Based on these figures, the numbers of accidents, deaths and injuries dropped across the board. (see chart).
Of 1,795 accidents over the past five days, Nakhon Si Thamarat accounted for 76, followed by Chiang Mai (63), Songkhla (49) and Surat Thani (49).
In terms of deaths, Bangkok, Khon Kaen and Pathum Thai led with eight each, followed by Chon Buri (7), Chiang Mai (7) and Sakhon Nakhon (6).
Drinking was the main cause of the accidents over the past five days, accounting for 39.6% of all accidents, followed by speeding (27%).
Like in past years, motorcycles continued to be the type of vehicles most involved in the accidents during the festival, at 79.3%, followed by pickup trucks (6.6%) and passenger cars (3.6%).
Over the past five days, most accidents occurred on highways (65.7%) and from 4pm to 8pm (30.3%). Most of the people who were injured or killed in road accidents were those aged 50 or more (23.5%).