Thailand's 7 deadly days on the road 2014/15

[buksida]

60 dead, 724 hurt in 5th day of Songkran road havoc
Sixty people were killed and 724 were injured in 671 traffic accidents nationwide on the first official day of the Songkran holiday Monday.

In the first five days of annual Thai New Year festival April 9-13, there were 2,406 road accidents in which 251 people died and 2,532 others were injured.

Damrong Sithakhajonboon, assistant secretary to the education minister, said that Nakhon Si Thammarat posted the largest number of traffic accidents, 32, and the most injured, 33. The highest death toll, five, occurred in Surat Thani province.

On Monday alone, the number of road accidents increased year-on-year by 48%, fatalities by 36% and injuries by 44%. Monday marked the start of the three-day legal holiday that runs April 13-15.

From April 9-13, Nakhon Si Thammarat province had the highest numbers of accidents, 94, and the most injured, 98. The most fatalities, 11, occurred in Roi Et province.

During the past five days, the number of accidents fell by 3%, but the death toll rose 0.4% while injuries dropped by 4% year-on-year.

More than 40% of the accidents resulted from drunk driving and most of them involved motorcycles.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/transpo ... road-havoc

[Big Boy]

I was hit by a motorcycle twice during yesterday's festivities. Quite funny actually, walking by the railway station, he went straight into my backside and bounced back. I looked around to see what had happened (I knew something plastic had just whacked me on the bum, but had no idea what). The guy (totally off his head) steadied himself and came again. This time he ricocheted off me, wobbled a lot and ricocheted into Mrs BB before wobbling on his way. No damage done to either of us, luckily.

[usual suspect]

Drove to Swampy last night..on the way there most drivers were sensible.
On the way back however (in the early hrs) so,so many cars using full beam headlights, & many doing ~80kph down the segregation lines..aiming their way, not driving!
All of these passing police roadside tents..while MiB whatched TV.
Roadblocks stopping every vehicle at Tha-Yang & into H.H.
No accidents seen...

[Spitfire]

Death toll just went over 300 nationally and still plenty of time for it to go higher as everyones rushes home. So, one of the times of year where we get the equivalent of a 747 crashing with all onboard dead is realised again.

From what I read, it's mainly drunk/high motorcyclists as usual. Guess it's Mother Nature weeding-out the idiots Thai-style.

Also read that a fair few places are now designating areas for this "festival" as there are many fed up with the craziness of it.....like the older folks, workers and others not on holiday or that don't wish to be drenched.

Songkran seems to be just for tourists, children, drunken baffons and perverts these days to go crazy with increasing numbers of Thais disapproving of what happens now.

[dundrillin]

The road deaths are indeed a tragedy,hopefully driver/rider education will improve along with a more effective police response. Hopefully though Thailand will not follow the UK where road safety has been superceeded by revenue collection.

As regards the Songkran festival my impression is that the festival is very much enjoyed by a wide spectrum of Thai society and Farangs. If the killjoys don't like it I'm sure they can figure out how to avoid it.

[Pleng]

I don't think not wanting to get buckets of ice thrown over you on your way to and from work is really being a 'killjoy'. I don't think it's being a killjoy if you don't really want to be riding your bike on roads that are even more dangerous than normal, with a great risk of being blinded by water and powder that inevitably somehow makes its way through any reasonable protection you're wearing.

The problem is that, unless you and your partner are retired, the "killjoy's" can't figure out how to avoid it.

Unlike Richard, though, I don't see any part of Thai society that are getting fed up with it, across any generations. I don't see any possibility of it being segregated into designated areas now or in the future. It wouldn't suprise me if, in years to come, Hua Hin follows the trend of have a week or more of water 'fun'.

[buksida]

Road toll exceeds last year's figures
THE SONGKRAN holiday period saw 364 deaths and 3,559 injuries from 3,373 accidents - higher than last year's figures, the Road Safety Centre said yesterday.

This year saw 42 more deaths, 334 more injuries and 381 more accidents.

On Wednesday alone, there were 458 accidents that claimed 58 lives and injured 489.

With drunk driving continuing to be the major cause of accidents, the Public Health Ministry yesterday admitted that alcohol-control measures during the holiday period had not been as successful as expected. The ministry blamed, in part, a lack of cooperation from business operators.

On behalf of the Road Safety Centre, which closed its doors yesterday, Deputy Interior Minister Suthee Makboon announced that drunk driving (39.31 per cent) and speeding (24.35 per cent) remained the two major contributors to most road accidents.

Motorcycles were involved in the majority of accidents (81.34 per cent), while 62.89 per cent of accidents took place on straight stretches of road.

Phitsanulok reported the highest number of accidents (141), while Surin had the highest number casualties (16 deaths and 152 injuries).

The five provinces that did not report any deaths were Phuket, Mae Hong Son, Yala, Samut Songkhram and Samut Sakhon.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 58126.html

[Spitfire]

On behalf of the Road Safety Centre, which closed its doors yesterday............

....in utter resignation and failure.

[Name Taken]

I don't think not wanting to get buckets of ice thrown over you on your way to and from work is really being a 'killjoy'. I don't think it's being a killjoy if you don't really want to be riding your bike on roads that are even more dangerous than normal, with a great risk of being blinded by water and powder that inevitably somehow makes its way through any reasonable protection you're wearing.

The problem is that, unless you and your partner are retired, the "killjoy's" can't figure out how to avoid it.

Unlike Richard, though, I don't see any part of Thai society that are getting fed up with it, across any generations. I don't see any possibility of it being segregated into designated areas now or in the future. It wouldn't suprise me if, in years to come, Hua Hin follows the trend of have a week or more of water 'fun'.

I certainly hope not.
Some businesses have been closed for a full week(7 days) just because of Songkran and that does not even include all of the other Holidays(King's Birthday, Queen's Birthday, Christmas and New Years, Chinese New Year and a dozen others). It is no wonder that Thailand has not bettered itself in over a decade other than having built new Shopping Malls and Condominiums(over 50% of the condo units are probably empty/unoccupied). In the U.S. there is no Holiday(s) that lasts for over 1 week. Thailand really needs to seriously consider cutting down on the number of Holidays and the length of those Holidays.
And I don't like having buckets of ice thrown over me either.

[usual suspect]

Past thru' Cha Am yesterday & many there were still celebrating Songkran.
Traffic-wise, all the way up to Bangers the vehicles were making a steady pace, even keeping a safe distance between themselves...THEN, as ever a 'hero' would come barrelling up the right hand lane..see it was going slower..swerve to the left, then sythe back over..all at about 120kph...Tossers!