New Year road death toll rises to over 100

BANGKOK: -- More than 100 people have been killed in road accidents in the first two days of the long New Year holidays, according to Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang.

On 29-30 December, 103 people died in road accidents, compared to 142 in the same period last year, Mr. Chaturon told a press conference here on Friday.

The number of injured has fallen dramatically he said.

This year 1,571 people were injured in road accidents, compared to more than 5,500 last year, said Mr. Chaturon.

But this year’s statistics excluded minor injuries, he added.

During that period, the highest number of fatal accidents occurred in the country's eastern province of Chachoengsao, as well as the northeastern provinces of Ubon Ratchathani and Nakhon Ratchasima, with seven each, followed by Bangkok (six), and the southern province of Songkhla (five), said Mr. Chaturon, who is also the Director of the government's Road Safety Centre.

Around 70 percent of the deaths were the result of reckless driving, he said.

More that 2.5 million vehicles were stopped at police checkpoints, and many of the drivers had broken the traffic law.

Most of them were not carrying their driving licences.

--TNA 2005-01-01

... More than 100 people have been killed in road accidents in the first two days of the long New Year holidays...

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Not surprising. On the way back from Patong to Chalong on New Year's eve I saw three accidents -

1. At Karon, three people pushing a motorcycle and one other person limping badly,

2. Between Karon and Chalong, three or four motorcycles lying on their side at the side of the road with a crowd of people standing around, and

3. Just before Chalong, a car had nose-dived into a ditch and was being pulled out by a truck.

All that in about 5 kilometers.

Here we go again! As if Thailand hasn't seen enough death and destruction this year...........

I thought the figures were more like 600 per New Year Holiday (Western NY and Songkhran)

On my way from Mae Sai I saw a few accidents too. One was during the night, so couldn't tell much details, but it was definitely much more than a fender-bender, judging from the size of the hole in the side of a minivan, and the presence of the ambulance.

Edited January 2, 200521 yr by SiamJai

Every year its the same old story of carnage on the roads at either Songkhran or New Year.

A couple of years ago the cops were supposedly clamping down on drunkn or dangerous driving in Thailand. Looks like that worked!!

I found in Chaing Mai there were never traffic stops (other than for helmets) anywhere, although if there was an accident (one where they didn't run away) suddenly a dozen cops were there out of nowhere.

cv

I found in Chaing Mai there were never traffic stops (other than for helmets) anywhere, although if there was an accident (one where they didn't run away) suddenly a dozen cops were there out of nowhere.

cv

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...looking for their Christmas "bonus"?

New Year Road Death Toll Rises To Over 100

Hmm, in percentage would that be a world record in prevention of traffic deaths from two years ago when the number was 562 deaths.

a country of untapped capacity of producing nonsense statistics