366 killed, 3,345 injured in road accidents during seven-day New Year holidays

[Tokay]

Watched an ambulance crew booze it up last night while they were waiting for calls. I sat and watched them for a few minutes in total disbelief. Normally, I would say something like that would turn into a disaster for everyone involved. But here, it's probably no different than any other night. Alcoholism is already deeply ingrained in their culture and accepted. One more reason this place is a magnet for foreign alcoholics.

[takkatan in the land]

It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance; for it requires knowledge to perceive it and therefore he that can perceive it hath it not.

Jeremy Taylor – 1613 /1667)

[Felt 35]

And how many deaths for the entire year - 25-26-27-28,000? In 10 years, that's a quarter of a million people. The stomach churns.

366 x 52 = 19032

Do you actually believe the figures for the last seven days are accurate?

Why call them 'seven dangerous days' if the released figure shows it is really safer to drive over the new year period?

Just think, in Thailand, you have the equivalent of a fully loaded Airbus a380 nosediving into the ground every single week that is tragic and it's terrible that there seems to be no will and no idea how to reduce the toll.

No not personally, the numbers dropped from around the thousand mark for both New Year and Songkran when Mr.T and family took over as PM back in 2001. Which of course looked great on paper but what have they practically done here regarding traffic safety in that periode. Nil, zero is done here except from more express/highways where its possible to drive faster but not necessary safer. Speed kills and combined with the everyday whisky drinking here it is lethal. In that timespan they claim a % drop in accidents that many developed countries which more or less introduce new traffic safety regulations annually not are near.

[bbbbooboo]

Yes approximately 1/4 million people killed in road accidents every 10 years, 1 million in 40 years. It's like some weird form of population control

[belg]

seems like less soldiers die per year in 2 wars than people drop here on the roads by alcohol & stupidity

[PlastikbinLina]

When countries lose this many people in a similar time period in a war, people are outraged. But when it happens on the roads of Thailand, it's business as usual.

It is sad isn't it. We have to our priorities right. I remember in the late 90's during the SARS virus crisis following the deaths of two or three Thais from the virus a world conference on that issue was held in Bangkok during the Songkran period. The number of deaths on the road at that time exceeded 400 but that was unimportant in relation to the SARS Asian epidemic. If 400 had died from the SARS virus panic would have ensued.