First Phuket Road Fatality For The Year

[george]

First Phuket road fatality for the year

A young couple wearing helmets in Phuket Town this morning.

Phuket’s first road fatality for the year came just before

island-wide enforcement of the helmet law, effective today.

PHUKET: -- A motorbike rider driving without a helmet has been reported as the first Phuket road fatality for 2011.

The body of Uthai Maikhong, 33, was found beside his motorbike in a three-meter-deep roadside drainage ditch in front of Wat Muang Mai in Thalang about 8am yesterday.

Local residents heard an accident about 7pm the night before, but in the dark they failed to find any evidence of an accident, Lt Col Adul Nirapai of Thalang Police told the Gazette.

Mr Uthai’s body and motorbike were found in tall grass in the ditch the next morning.

Lt Col Adul said that a wound to Mr Uthai’s chest indicated that it was likely he died after being impaled by a discarded a steel reinforcement bar found near his body.

Originally from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Mr Uthai worked as a security guard at Phuket International Academy (PIA).

Although the accident occurred on Thursday night, as the Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) received notification today, Mr Uthai’s death goes down as the first for the new year.

The accident came just before today’s launch of island-wide enforcement of all people on motorbikes having to wear helmets

Police did not find a helmet at the accident scene in Thalang.

The fatality was also the first for Phuket during the Seven Days of Danger national road safety campaign.

The DDPM road-safety center recorded 14 accidents occurring yesterday, the third day of the Seven Days campaign.

Twelve accidents involved motorbikes and one involved a mini-van. A Gazette reader reported, “There was a big accident with a mini van that rolled over just after Yacht Haven Marina. The roof was flattened and it was very bent out of shape.”

From those accidents, 13 people were admitted to hospital for minor injuries, two in Phuket Town, five in Kathu and six Thalang.

Ten of the people admitted were men, and three were women. One was a child under 14 years old.

The latest statistics brings the Phuket road toll to one dead and 32 people admitted to hospital since the campaign began on Thursday.

The Nation today reported the national road toll at 151 deaths.

New Year’s Eve alone saw 684 road accidents, killing 72 people and injuring 716 others, the road safety center announced Saturday, The Nation reported.

Phirapat Booncharoen, an assistant to the justice minister, said motorcycles were involved in 84.46 per cent of the road accidents, the report said.

-- Phuket Gazette 2011-01-01