BANGKOK, Jan 6 (TNA) — The total death toll in road accidents and the number of accidents across the country during the New Year Seven Days Road Safety campaign are decreased when compares with the same period last year.
The government will go ahead with the “Drink Don’t Drive” campaign all year round to reduce the number of road accident as much as possible.
The Command Centre for the Prevention and Reduction of Road Accidents on Friday concluded the New Year Seven Days Road Safety campaign that on January 4, the seventh and the last day of the road safety campaign, there were 200 road accidents which causing 205 injuries and 18 deaths.
The accumulate numbers of the road accident this year were 2,288, decreased by 6.23 per cent. The numbers of injured people were 2,307, 5.33 per cent less from last year and a total of 284 people were killed, 10.41 per cent less from last year.
Speeding was the main cause of the accidents, accounting for 48.5 per cent of accidents. Normally, in the past the accidents were mostly caused by drunk driving which was the result of the strict law enforcement of the authorities and the cooperation of the general public and tourists on alcoholic drinks consumption.
The center urged all parties to maintain the similar campaign on drunk driving, not only New Year period but also Songkran Festival to reduce the road accident all year round.
Deputy National Police Chief Surachet Hakpal said that this year there was no accident caused by drivers of public transportation after the strict measures were implemented including alcohol level check-points, urine test for illegal substances at risk points and around the bus terminals.
He said the strict measures have successfully results.
He added that after this, the Royal Thai Police will meet every Monday to follow the risk factors that lead to road accident in each area and find the effective solutions.
The Command Centre for the Prevention and Reduction of Road Accidents said it would analyze the road accident statistics, in the expectation that the lessons learn will be used to develop additional measures to reduce accidents in the future, to reach the goal of reducing road traffic deaths to less than 12 per 100,000 people by 2027. -813 (TNA)
