New Year exodus starts, traffic (and carnage) builds up on Thai roads

[Nereus]

Roads turn deadlier this New Year holiday

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... ar-holiday

The first three days of the dangerous New Year travel week has seen 1,633 accidents, 182 deaths and 1,690 injured with the highest death toll in Khon Kaen province and the greatest number of accidents and injuries in Chiang Mai province.

Assistant national police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapat said on Sunday that there were 643 road accidents on Saturday, with 83 deaths and 667 injuries.

The most common cause of the accidents -- 40.90% -- was drunk driving. and another 27.22% resulted from speeding. Most of the vehicles involved in the accidents were motorcycles -- 74.74% -- followed by pickup trucks at 11.66%.

Officials at checkpoints arrested 165,093 traffic rule violators. A total of 45,652 were not wearing crash helmets and 42,649 were not able to produce a driving licence.

The highest death tolls on Saturday were reported in Chiang Mai and Buri Ram provinces, where 25 people died in each province.

From Thursday to Saturday, there were 1,633 accidents, compared with 1,702 in the same period of last year. The death toll stood at 182 (up from 167) and 1,690 people were injured (compared with 1,793 year-on-year).

The highest number of accidents -- 55 -- and the highest number of injuries -- 60 -- were reported in the northern province of Chiang Mai. The highest death toll -- 11 -- was in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen.

[europtimiste]

This is a natural readjustment to the population.

[usual suspect]

Travelled on the H.H. bypass from Chumpol Rd traffic lights down to Pala-U Jtn the other night..
Some of the pick-up drivers were just plain idiots..! The sheer speed, driving with lights on full-beam, undertaking at full speed..(you all know the score )
..So IMO the carnage on the roads is down to Thainess..Those macho dips***s driving as they always do..The very sad part is when their actions maim or kill other folk on the road!
(I wonder what the figures are for these speeding pick-ups wiping out m/cycles travelling on the same road..?)

[centermid7]

" National Council for Peace and Order deputy spokeswoman Colonel Sirichan Nga-thong said action had already been taken against 60,492 drunk drivers. "


This number is truly amazing . . . and that is the ones that were stopped.

[Nereus]

Drink-drivers wreak havoc

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... reak-havoc

Despite crackdowns on errant drivers, drink driving remains the leading cause of accidents over the past three days of the New Year long holiday with arrests up compared to the same period last year.

A 30% rise was seen in the number of drink-driving arrests from Thursday until Saturday, the first three of the so-called seven dangerous days of the holiday period, Pol Lt Gen Damrongsak Kittipraphat, an assistant to the national police chief, said Sunday.

About 6,000 breathalysers and hundreds of radar speed guns are being used nationwide, he said.

There have been a total of 1,633 road accidents over the three days with drink-driving responsible for 40.9% and speeding blamed for 27.2% of the incidents.

Most of these accidents (74.7%) involved motorcycles and 11.6% involved pickup trucks.

A total of 3,323 drink-driving cases have been sent to court and 33 offenders had their licences suspended for six months. They were also ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device and not to leave their homes from 10pm and 4am for 15 days, said Prasarn Mahaleetrakul, director-general of the Probation Department.

Bangkok recorded the highest number of drink-driving cases of 136, followed by Sakon Nakhon with 124 cases and Maha Sarakham with 93 cases, he said.

Peraphon Thawornsupacharoen, director-general of the Department of Land Transport, said most of the 792 complaints lodged with the department's passenger protection centre over the period related to reckless driving.

[buksida]

Next headline: Junta Bans Alcohol Sales Over New Year

[handdrummer]

Next headline: Junta Bans Alcohol Sales Over New Year

Alcohol Banned Thailand except for treating wounds.

[T.O.M.]

"A total of 3,323 drink-driving cases have been sent to court and 33 offenders had their licences suspended for six months. They were also ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device and not to leave their homes from 10pm and 4am for 15 days, said Prasarn Mahaleetrakul, director-general of the Probation Department" Quote

Less than 1% have their licenses suspended, and are sentenced to "house-arrest" for 6 hours for 2 weeks......Sure that will teach them!!
Drunk driving in the Scandinavian countries leads to loss of license for 1 year and a compulsory prison sentence for 1 month....Maybe that would be something for Thailand to copy? The present 'punishment' is hardly a deterrent..

[T.O.M.]

Next headline: Junta Bans Alcohol Sales Over New Year

Maybe Thailand should make alcohol more difficult to access all year around.
Since the number of drunk drivers on the roads here clearly prove that the Thai's can't handle the present system with easy access.
Government run bottle shops? Generous opening hours, but when they are closed...they are closed...!!
Today's system with..."Full tank and a bottle of whisky" (from the ever present 7/11) is clearly not working.

I know some posters here,consider it to be almost a human right to be able to buy alcohol 24/7, and any restrictions are limiting their personal freedom.....Until you or a family member are killed by a drunk driver.

[Nereus]

Chiang Mai tops New Year traffic casualties

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... casualties

The first four of this year's "seven dangerous days" of New Year travel has seen 2,194 road accidents, 236 deaths and 2,265 people injured -- with Chiang Mai posting the highest number of accidents, deaths and injuries midway through the week-long travel spree.

Prasan Mahaleetrakul, director-general of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, said on Monday that on Sunday, the fourth day of the seven-day New Year travel period, there were 561 road accidents which killed 51 people and injured 578 others.

The most common cause remained drink driving -- which led to 42.42% of Sunday's accidents -- followed by speeding (27.99%). Motorcycles were involved in 80.31% of the accidents, followed by pickup trucks (6.39%). The most accident-prone time was between 4pm and 8pm (28.70%).

Checkpoint officials stopped 876,537 vehicles for examination and arrested 177,400 people for violations of the law. Of that number, 51,039 were motorcyclists not wearing crash helmets and 43,799 were unable to present driving licences.

During the four-day period, authorities impounded 2,729 vehicles -- 1,945 of them motorcycles from drunk drivers. Courts ordered 33 traffic violators, including drunk drivers, to wear electronic monitoring devices to force them to stay at home late at night to reduce traffic accidents. Most of those forced to wear tags were in Bangkok.

On Sunday the highest number of accidents (23) and the highest number of injured people (24) were in Songkhla province. The one-day highest death toll (5) was in Nakhon Ratchasima.

The figures showed that Thailand's roads were marginally less lethal than over the same four-day period last year. From Thursday to Sunday, there were 2,194 accidents (compared with 2,308 in the same period last year), 236 deaths (compared with 239) and 2,265 injured people (compared with 2,500 last year).

Over the four days, Chiang Mai showed the highest number of accidents, 77, the joint-highest death toll, 12 (the same as in Nakhon Ratchasima), and the largest number of injured people, 79.

Authorities were studying the information to try to minimise losses when New Year travellers make their return trips on Monday and Tuesday, Mr Prasan said.

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[hhinner]

"A total of 3,323 drink-driving cases have been sent to court and 33 offenders had their licences suspended for six months. They were also ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device and not to leave their homes from 10pm and 4am for 15 days, said Prasarn Mahaleetrakul, director-general of the Probation Department" Quote

Less than 1% have their licenses suspended, and are sentenced to "house-arrest" for 6 hours for 2 weeks......Sure that will teach them!!
Drunk driving in the Scandinavian countries leads to loss of license for 1 year and a compulsory prison sentence for 1 month....Maybe that would be something for Thailand to copy? The present 'punishment' is hardly a deterrent..

But an earlier post said action had been taken against 60,492 drunk drivers according to a NCPO spokesperson. So what action was that?

[Big Boy]

They accepted a contribution to the tea fund of course

Lies, damned lies and statistics - you choose which to believe

[europtimiste]

It's very amusing to see the performances of this forum members. They report all Bangkok post or other newspapers articles, complain about accidents, approve higher fines...but they don't have any idea about the origin of those accidents. Well....so useless writings...555

[Dannie Boy]

They accepted a contribution to the tea fund of course

Lies, damned lies and statistics - you choose which to believe

Although it must still go on, if you read the various reports that are widely available in Thailand, the incidence of police accepting “tea money” for drink driving offenses is definitely on the decline, such that most people who get stopped won’t find it an option - just a 6000 Baht fine and (less likely) up to 6 months in jail plus a short spell of community service.

[Big Boy]

If that's right, I fully applaud it - some proper policing. I hope it continues 365 days a year.