Yesterday, The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation announced the shocking number of road accidents and deaths over the New Year holidays. The last numbers released said that 367 people died on Thailand’s roads while 3,342 were injured over five days of the seven-day anti-drunk driving campaign.
The campaign included increased police checkpoints on the roads and, similar to last year, the penalties for those caught drunk driving included the immediate loss of the guilty person’s driving license and their vehicles for the remainder of the holiday period.
As of yesterday, the campaign’s fifth day, there had been 445 accidents on roads across the country, reported Thai PBS.
The cause for most of the accidents that resulted in death was drunk driving.
The highest number of fatalities happened in Chonburi, where 31 people died. The highest number of vehicle accidents happened in Chiang Mai, where 129 accidents were recorded.
Like last year, motorcycles have remained the most common vehicle to be involved in accidents. Motorcycles were involved in 84 percent of the holiday’s total collisions.
The number of accidents and deaths for yesterday will be released soon.
