A total of 555 road accidents were recorded on New Year’s Eve in Thailand, resulting in 65 deaths and 535 people injured, on the third day of the long New Year holidays, according to the Road Accidents Prevention and Reduction Centre.
Chiang Mai logged 26 road accidents, the most in one day for any province in the country and the highest number of injured at 23, while the north-eastern province of Udon Thani recorded the highest death toll at 5.
36.4% of the accidents were caused by speeding, 34.77% by drunk driving and 16.4% by cutting in front of other vehicles.
Total road accidents for the first three days of the holidays are 1,339, resulting to 153 deaths and 1,322 injured.
Boontham Lertsukheekasem, director-general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, said today (Saturday) that, since many people are still travelling today, officials have been instructed to tighten up checks on vehicles at allcheckpoints, to make sure that motorists and motorcyclists strictly comply with the law, especially from 6pm until 9pm when most accidents have occurred.
