52 people killed and 431 injured on first day of Songkran festival on Monday



BANGKOK: -- Fifty-two people were killed and 431 others injured in 387 road accidents on the first day of the launch road safety campaign on Monday to coincide with Songkran festival.

The centre for the prevention and reduction of road accidents of the Department of Public Disasters Prevention and Mitigation, the main cause of the road accidents was speeding which accounted for 36.69 percent of the 387 accidents recorded on the first day followed by drunk driving which accounted for 26.87 percent of the accidents.

Motorcycles accounted for the bulk of the accidents representing 79.6 percent followed by pick-up trucks accounting for 10.20 percent of the accidents. 56.93 percent of the dead and injured victims were working people.

Chiang Mai topped the highest incidence of road accidents with 19 accidents followed by 6 in Prachin Buri.

The centre reported that a total of 2,128 road checkpoints were set up on Monday and over 65,000 officials were mobilized to keep check of traffic flow and inspection of vehicles.

A total of 528,903 vehicles were checked and, of these, 84,724 faced legal actions, including 25,651 cases of no driving licenses and 23,354 cases of riding with crash helmets.

Pol Lt-Gen Anan Srihirun, assistant national police chief, said police in the provinces were instructed to facilitate traffic flow and to ensure road safety today which is the last working day in anticipation of more people leaving Bangkok.

Mr Chatchai Promlert, chief of the Department for Public Disasters Prevention and Mitigation, said that as most holidaymakers would have reached their destinations in upcountry by tomorrow, provincial and local administrators had been instructed to tighten up the five measures introduced by the National

Council for Peace and Order, foremost of all is the measure to clamp down on reckless driving, speeding and drunk driving.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/159267


-- Thai PBS 2016-04-12

A good start!

There we go again, despite all the government and the police efforts to minimize the carnage on the roads

the first 52 dead in a day that not even a proper holiday time, one can only sigh in despair and sorrow......

A good start!

Really? is that what you take from the death of 52 people, a good start? will it be better

for you with 500 dead?

"Chiang Mai topped the highest incidence of road accidents with 19 accidents"

Monday afternoon I left work early, around 1:30PM, to get my locked in the house supplies. Traffic on Hang Dong road had very long queues of cars and slow moving. I saw two auto rear enders in the space of 1-2 kms so wonder about that number.

Isn't that figure in the ball park for the daily average, in fact it may be a little lower.

Sent from my SMART_4G_Speedy_5inch using Tapatalk

A good start!

Really? is that what you take from the death of 52 people, a good start? will it be better

for you with 500 dead?

Wake up "ezzra".....this is not fantasy land...hundreds will die!

Speed limit all cars in Thailand to 80 or 100km an hour.

Worked on all mine sites I worked at in reducing accidents.

A good start!

Really? is that what you take from the death of 52 people, a good start? will it be better

for you with 500 dead?

if you don't understand the irony here, then I am quite sure you must be Asian

So nearly 20% of Vehicles/Drivers reported as checked were breaking the law in some way?! Extrapolate to both the Vehicles not checked and over 5 days. Ouch!

Maybe if the cops got of their lazy backsides and did some actual policing these all-too-predictable tragic numbers might actually decrease!

What a terrible, tragic, waste of lives. Again.

It's very sad, but it comes as no surprise to see the annual carnage starting already!

Out here in smallsville I needed to go into the big city to get the car checked over, the girlfriend wasn't too keen on the idea of driving this close to Songkran, and it didn't take long to find out why.

We didn't see any accidents, but we saw lots of people rushing to get to one! The idiotic rush to get past was no different to usual except for the increase in numbers.

Girlfriend says they're in a hurry to get to paradise! She also observed, in the 'Big C' car park that there were a lot of Bangkok registered cars, and the car park was a lot busier than usual.

I keep a safe braking distance between me and the car in front, but the "Paradise Run" drivers feel the desperate need to occupy that space. I give 'em space to get by so they're no longer tailgating me, I'm in no hurry to get to paradise myself!

Isn't that figure in the ball park for the daily average, in fact it may be a little lower.

(referring to #6)

The yearly publicity stunt.

52*365 = 18980

That's less than the usually published number of deaths per year (between 20'000 and 24'000 per year).

But good they have time to do accurate statistics for Songkran.

Lemmings rushing headlong to the cliff face, this is a national disgrace and would cause outcry of unprecedented proportions in a western country.

52 people die...on one day?

Shame on Thailand.

Wasnt Day 1 last year was like 25 deaths ?

seems the new campaigns to reduce the toll are working well !!!

Before I start "being me": R.I.P.

...and now:

- I always thought, the Festival starts on 13th and last only 2 days, because of the drought?

- I bet, all the victims were not dressed appropriately or were carrying big water- guns, because wasn't that the real danger of Songkrahn?

- business as usual and only the beginning of a piece of carnage, that will make Game of Thrones look like a family show!

Another wasted and useless safety campaign.

And to think Songkran doesn't officially begin until tomorrow.

A good start!

Really? is that what you take from the death of 52 people, a good start? will it be better

for you with 500 dead?

How could you not see the sarcasm?

Speed limit all cars in Thailand to 80 or 100km an hour.

Worked on all mine sites I worked at in reducing accidents.

Thailands is not a nanny state. No thanks. You can even buy peptides in 7-11s here.

If the stats are correct that means only five or six died in cars, the rest were in pick ups or on motorbikes.

While it would be good if nobody died, that will never happen, five or six dead in car crashes considering all the kilometers travelled is not too bad. No need to limit all cars to 80kms per hour. It would just add to fatigue. They wouldn't even do that in the nanniest of nanny states, Victoria Australia.

If drunk drivers die, so be it. My sympathy only goes to the unfortunate ones killed by the drunks.

Another wasted and useless safety campaign.

And to think Songkran doesn't officially begin until tomorrow.

Most Thais have taken the entire week off. (Outside of tourist areas)

The result, if true, isn't too bad.

Another wasted and useless safety campaign.

And to think Songkran doesn't officially begin until tomorrow.

Most Thais have taken the entire week off. (Outside of tourist areas)

The result, if true, isn't too bad.

The numbers as usual are skewed for face saving. Thailand has the second highest road kill in the world at about 80 per day.

A good start!

Really? is that what you take from the death of 52 people, a good start? will it be better

for you with 500 dead?

will it be better for you with 500 dead?

Be patient, they are working on that!

I'm in Chiang Mai. I haven't seen a single police check point anywhere, not even the usual 1am stops. I actually see more police on a random Friday night than I have this past weekend and Monday. So much for their 2016 road safety campaign.

Some people are just not meant to survive. Hate to say it, but Natural Selection is real and happening live before our eyes.

I had to check the date on this media release. Looks like exactly the same report this time last year, same numbers, same causations. And wasnt their an order the other day; " learn by our mistakes"?

Speed limit all cars in Thailand to 80 or 100km an hour.

Worked on all mine sites I worked at in reducing accidents.

and who will enforce it and when?

A good start!

Really? is that what you take from the death of 52 people, a good start? will it be better

for you with 500 dead?

A good start is a figure of speech, with exactly the opposite meaning.

Speed limit all cars in Thailand to 80 or 100km an hour.

Worked on all mine sites I worked at in reducing accidents.

Thailands is not a nanny state. No thanks. You can even buy peptides in 7-11s here.

Yet you can't get Tylenol PM or any other half dozen drugs that really help ease the misery when you're ill. You also don't have freedom of speech, you can't say anything about anyone without the risk of a law suit, and so on. So no, Thailand is not a westernized nanny state, it's more like a big bully brother who will punish you if you don't agree with him.

Just got back from doing a visa-run today..on the main highways it was just like other members have posted above..speed, speed ,speed..if the traffic in the right hand lane

slowed to 90/100kph the SUV's would swing to the left & undertake at 120kph!

Police?..never saw a single patrol car, never saw any roadside cameras, no check-points, & every 'rest tent' was manned by local Rangers in their Khaki uniforms..not RTP.

So NO traffic enforcement witnessed today..Same-same as every other day then eh?

For a country lacking on any meaningful statistics, I find these finite numbers quite remarkable or unbelievable..... now what was it.......