Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday lauded the success of road safety campaigns during the recent Songkran festival, saying the 20% plunge in the death toll from last year was thanks to greater coordination by the authorities and higher pay for officials.
In more than 12,000 road accidents, a total of 522 people died and 16,395 were injured from April 8-17. This compared with 605 deaths and 34,448 injured during last year's festival, or down 20% and more than 50%, respectively.
Mr Thaksin said the lower Songkran toll was a result of improved cooperation among officials, the private sector and local bodies, people's growing awareness of road safety and the payment of higher allowances to about 100,000 officials on duty at checkpoints and operations centres nationwide, which encouraged them to work at full steam.
But the prime minister admitted traffic accidents during the festive period mostly involved motorcycles and drunk driving.
He said he saw many teenagers holding beer bottles in their hands, not wearing crash helmets and driving motorcycles carelessly in his hometown of Chiang Mai.
He said his government would seek to curb road accidents further by focusing on this area since 85% of traffic accidents involved motorcycles.
Thaksin: Thanks for cooperating
Sermsak: Strict law enforcement
Mr Thaksin praised convenience stores for cooperating with government directives by not selling alcohol to customers during prohibited periods. But he said the number of road accidents remained high in provinces that served as transit points for holiday makers.
The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department's operations centre against road accidents during Songkran yesterday reported a total of 12,074 traffic accidents from April 8-17 this year.
The centre said 85% of the accidents involved motorcycles, about 7% pickup trucks and just over 2% sedans and taxis. Not wearing crash helmets was the top cause of injuries (just under 36%), followed by drunk driving (almost 25%) and speeding (around 12%).
Nakhon Ratchasima had the most dead and injured (20 and 659), followed by 19 deaths in Nakhon Si Thammarat, and 17 each in Nakhon Sawan, Bangkok, Chon Buri and Chiang Mai. Narathiwat in the troubled South had no road fatalities
The centre said casualties on April 17 this year, when most Songkran revellers returned from their celebrations, fell to 41 from 49 deaths and to 2,056 from 2,194 injuries from the same day last year.
Deputy Interior Minister Sermsak Pongpanit said road safety campaigns during Songkran were successful because of stricter law enforcement.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/19Apr2005_news02.php
522 doden dit jaar ipv 605 doden afgelopen jaar tijdens het Songkran festival! Wat een feest!
Thaksin schijnt dit een succes te vinden... Het is werkelijk waar niet te geloven.... Wat een getallen voor zo'm relatief korte periode!
