Longer holidays blamed for more road accidents

By The Nation

 

 

Over a 1,000 people injured on first two days of Songkran celebrations

 

EXTENDED celebrations for the Songkran Festival have been blamed for an increase in road accidents involving drunk driving, however the Interior Ministry has assured that the country’s roads will be safer this year due to more traffic checkpoints and strict law enforcement.

 

The Road Safety Centre (RSC) yesterday reported the outcome of the second day of operations for the Thai New Year, to prevent traffic accidents during the “seven dangerous days” of the holidays from April 11 to April 17. It was found that road safety during the first two days of the holiday period did not improve, as the number of accidents, injuries and deaths were all higher compared to the same period last year.

 

 

From Wednesday to Thursday, there were a total 1,026 road accidents, which injured 1,085 persons and killed 99 persons, while during the same period last year there were only 994 accidents, 1,035 injured people, and 95 deaths.

 

The director of the Academic Centre for Road Safety, Thanapong Jinvong, pointed out that the increased rate of accidents was because people tend to celebrate for a longer period, adding to the official three days, resulting in more accidents from drunk driving.

 

“Observation of people’s travel behaviour during recent years reveals that they tend to leave Bangkok earlier and have longer periods to celebrate Songkran at their homes,” Thanapong said.

 

“Therefore we can see that the peak day for road accidents, which is usually the first day of Songkran celebrations on April 13, has shifted to a day earlier – April 12 – as many people reached their homes and start the celebrations earlier.”

 

His conclusions matched the road accident statistics of the RSC, which also revealed that the major cause of accidents were drunk driving (43.66 per cent), speeding (28.07 per cent), and ignoring signal red lights (0.6 per cent).

 

RSC revealed that Chiang Rai had the highest number of accidents and injured people, while Nakhon Ratchasima had the highest death toll. RSC reported that 77.44 per cent of road accidents involved motorcycles.

 

 

Interior Ministry spokesperson Nisit Jansomwong stated that the authorities were wary of this worrying trend and the ministry had already ordered an investigation to find the reasons for the higher accident rate.

 

However, Nisit said that as they only had statistics for the first two days of the seven-day operation there was still a chance that the total number of accidents would be reduced.

 

“The officers in the field have been ordered to scrupulously collect evidence from every accident site and investigate the cause of each accident in order to use this information to improve accident prevention measures,” he said.

 

According to the operation report by the RSC, law enforcement was more intense this year; a total of 764,035 vehicles were stopped at checkpoints, which was a 9.2-per-cent increase from the same period last year. The prosecution rate also increased by 44.24 per cent compared to last year, with a total of 154,733 people arrested for reckless driving. There were a total of 2,032 traffic checkpoints across the country and more than 65,492 officers were working to ensure road safety.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30343128

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-04-14

If only they could send ‘longer holidays’  to an inactive post. That would teach him.......or her. 

Oh so now its the longer holidays :)

You can't make this stuff up.. 

 

Funny that, I would put it down to low driver/rider mentality! 

Edited April 14, 20188 yr by PatOngo

6 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

EXTENDED celebrations for the Songkran Festival have been blamed for an increase in road accidents involving drunk driving

Extended holidays to blame? We are only at day two! I don't blame the length of the holiday. I blame the stupid, reckless irresponsible drivers for the mayhem and carnage. And the cops for being so useless the rest of the year that drivers feel they can drive like idiots all the time.

Could it be the culture of very heavy drinking and then driving totally impaired that night or the next day that causes accidents or just stupidity .

No blame the government that encourages everyone to celebrate Songkran at different times in the Kingdom

 

I used to live in a US State that allowed local jurisdictions set the bar closing times, which resulted in numerous traffic deaths as drinkers traveled from one town to another to take advantage of the different closing times.  Once the state got smart and set universal closing times the nightly exodus to other drinking spots stopped

 

One Songkran would force Thais to make a decision; celebrate at home or at work, not both  

But i thought they were all skilled drivers and Riders in Thailand.

Has someone been telling me porkies on Tv. 

 

14 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

“Observation of people’s travel behaviour during recent years reveals that they tend to leave Bangkok earlier and have longer periods to celebrate Songkran at their homes,” Thanapong said.

pathetic attempt at logic, even thai logic; no facts to back this assertion up, thus a guess; i don't believe anything to this effect has changed in the past 5 years

So far its only been a 2 day holiday has it not?

Well to be perfectly honest, in my humble opinion, of course without offending anyone who thinks differently from my point of view, but also by looking into this matter in a different perspective and without being condemning of one's view's and by trying to make it objectified, and by considering each and every one's valid opinion, I honestly believe that I completely forgot what I was going to say.

If you give the car keys to an untrained, inebriated kid, how long do you think its going to take before you find the car wrecked? Doesn't take 3 or 5 days.

Most of the carnage on the roads is the result of D.W.T. (driving while Thai)

Edited April 14, 20188 yr by daoyai

9 minutes ago, stanleycoin said:

But i thought they were all skilled drivers and Riders in Thailand.

Has someone been telling me porkies on Tv. 

 

They are all skilled, especially when a thread with this heading, "Carnage avoidance as truck driver praised for driving skills", went on to explain it was all because he "managed to use the roadside barrier to slow down and come to a halt with no one suffering injury."

And I thought that was what anyone would do anyway. I was obviously mistaken.

 

Maybe they should increase the speed on the highways as was suggested last week, than all the Thais reach their provinces faster and less accidents happens.......

When does this nonsense end? It is an official holiday Mon and Tue or does it depend on where one resides?

If the published numbers are to believed the RTP is doing a great job, NOT... I would like to know how many cars, motorbikes have been impounded due to drivers being intoxicated..

 

Some checkpoints are a complete waste of time. Perpetrators just make a donation to the police welfare fund and are on their merry way, what sort of moronic prevention is that?

Edited April 14, 20188 yr by merlin2002

totally agree a load of <deleted> i was at the traffic lights yesterday,my arrow came on to turn right, i could not proceed as traffic had blocked my exit (them turning across me) traffic cleared, and a white pick up came barreling across the intersection turning right, in front of me, a good 15 seconds after my right turn arrow had come on, grrr !! all i could do was point at him lol !!

I don't care if my house is burning down. It's Songkran Time in Thailand. I'm not going anywhere.

Another stupid statement! Road Deaths are caused by irresponsible idiots EVERY day !


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

The roads....The brakes.....The length of holidays......The U turns

Excuse me Sir, What about the drivers....?

Whilst it's clear that a lot of car drivers drive whilst drunk the main culprits are motorcyclists, therefore the 75% death rate.

Somehow I get the impression that the Thais; farangs and the police think that driving a motorbike when drunk is a lesser offence than driving a car drunk.

I would remind the police also that fining a drunk motorcyclist then allowing him to proceed is aiding and abetting an offence.

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Longer holidays blamed for more road accidents

Actually there is a kind of logic there. If Songkran was only 1 day long, then the 600 deaths or whatever would go down to less than a 100 for all songkran.

 

'Lack of simple common sense blamed for more road accidents'... 

2 hours ago, YetAnother said:

pathetic attempt at logic, even thai logic; no facts to back this assertion up, thus a guess; i don't believe anything to this effect has changed in the past 5 years

not in the past 5 years and not in the next 20 years

2 hours ago, cornishcarlos said:

Oh so now its the longer holidays :)

You can't make this stuff up.. 

 

We have only had TWO days yet. It is after the 7 days we can tally up.

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

a total of 764,035 vehicles were stopped at checkpoints

and how many accidents happen at checkpoints ? yes if you are lucky you will catch drunk drivers after or before they kill someone but you will not catch bad driving

 

They still just don't get the concept of continuous proactive preventive policing

 

and it will not work for 14 days a year, it must be consistent and continuous for 365 days a year 

Edited April 14, 20188 yr by smedly

2 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

So far its only been a 2 day holiday has it not?

for some ( many it seems ) it lasts forever!!

Ban holidays. It's the only solution. Matter of fact, everywhere I've been and for all my life as well, once this "holiday" happens, shops close down, people have nothing to do and are lazy and stuff, clog up traffic and so forth, Bad role model for kids and adults alike.

Who suggested the longer holiday,look at the Thai holidays in General[apt i think] Topics you will see,the same person who said Farmers could burn all they like this year .

  i have also noticed with Thai's party-itiss the majority of guest may have gone,but as long as the speakers are still there and hooked up is seems they cannot stop.