Seventy-four people died and 576 others were injured in 586 road accidents in the kingdom on Wednesday, the Road Safety Directing Centre reported on Thursday.
Suphat Champathong, permanent-secretary of education, told a press conference Nakhon Ratchasima had the highest figures with five deaths and 32 people injured in 26 accidents.
The period of Dec 29–Jan 4 is dubbed the “New Year’s Seven Dangerous Days”, and a total of 1,000 accidents have been recorded for the first two days with 117 deaths and 1,014 people injured.
There has been no traffic accident in 26 provinces so far, Mr Suphat said.
Most of the accidents were caused by either drunk driving or speeding, he said, noting 82.03% of the cases involved motorcycles while 28% of the accidents took place between 4–8pm.
There are 1,927 checkpoints set up nationwide, he said, adding over 351,900 vehicles have been checked.
Almost 62,600 people have faced legal action, including 19,102 for failing to wear a helmet and 16,135 for not having a driver’s licence, Mr Suphat added.
BBK
