The death toll from road accidents in the first two days of the “Seven Dangerous Days” of the New Year holidays has risen to 98, while 1,024 others were injured nationwide, the transport minister said on Saturday.
Transport Minister Akom Termpithayaphaisit told a press conference that on Friday, the second day of seven-day road accident monitoring period, 570 accidents occurred that claimed 56 lives and injured 592 others.
He said 38 died at the scene of the accidents while 18 others died in hospital.
He said drunk driving was the main cause of the accidents, and was responsible for 38.95 per cent of Friday’s accidents, followed by speed limit violations (28.60 per cent).
He said 76.68 per cent of incidents involved motorcyclists.
The first two days of the monitoring period saw 990 accidents, killing 98 people and injuring 1,024 others, he said.
So far, Chiang Mai province has the biggest number of accidents (33 accidents) while Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai and Lop Buri had the biggest number of accumulated deaths, each with five.
