Songkran Harmless Fun?

[onzestan]

Sonkran death toll rises to 169 after 3 days

Road accidents in the first three days of the seven dangerous Sonkran holidays saw 169 people killed and 2,296 others injured, Deputy Public Health Minister Morakot Kornkasem said Saturday.

Morakot told a press conference that 2,032 accidents occurred from Wednesday to Friday.

On Friday alone, 965 accidents occurred, killing 71 people and injuring 1,062 others.

Nakhon Phanom and Khon Kaen were the provinces with highest death toll with six persons killed in each province, Morakot said.

Most or 45.6 per cent of the accidents were caused by drunk driving, he said.

The Nation

Tragic, and it isn't finished yet.

onzestan

Edited April 14, 2007 by sbk
Do not post a news article without link to source

[TEFLMike]

Two years hence, and still little, or no, change

[Boater]

even worse now

[yabaaaa]

And at the other end of the spectrum back in the UK they want to drop all speed limits, many new 20mph limits in towns and a lowering of the national 60mph to 50 2 offences and you will ne banned despite having probably the lowest death rate on the roads in Europe!!! You know what in 5 years we'll be back with the red flag bloke walking in front of the car. Thailand to the UK from One extreme to the other, Insanity rules in both countries!!

PS the credit control is now under control all fixed here thanks Darling............. yeah right!!!!

[Neeranam]

And at the other end of the spectrum back in the UK they want to drop all speed limits, many new 20mph limits in towns and a lowering of the national 60mph to 50 2 offences and you will ne banned despite having probably the lowest death rate on the roads in Europe!!! You know what in 5 years we'll be back with the red flag bloke walking in front of the car. Thailand to the UK from One extreme to the other, Insanity rules in both countries!!

PS the credit control is now under control all fixed here thanks Darling............. yeah right!!!!

There nothing insane about making roads safer.

[jts-khorat]

Is Songkran harmless fun? It could well be that way with some effort of the police to actually enforce existing law.

I also would offer the point that there are a large number of road deaths over Songkran, of which the majority has nothing to do with the festival itself!

The number is so much larger than on any "normal" day because also a very large part of the population suddenly starts to travel -- at least that would be my theory.

As such it would be very interesting to see statistics where the cause of death is separated to have better conclusions on how many deaths are because of Songkran and how many because many more people are on the road.