43 people were killed and 466 injured in 464 road accidents, mostly blamed on drink driving, on the first day of Thailand’s “seven dangerous days” of New Year holiday travel on Friday, according to the Department for Prevention and Mitigation of Public Disasters.
Drink driving was a factor in 30.39% of the road accidents, followed by speeding in 24.78%.
80.08% of the accidents involved motorcycles, 39.22% occurred on highways under the supervision of the Highways Department and 30.60% occurred on secondary roads supervised by tambon administration organizations and villages.
30.39% of the accidents took place between 4pm and 8pm and 29.27% of the casualties were people over the age of 50.
A total of 731,933 vehicles were stopped for checks and 158,453 people were charged for traffic violations, including 42,912 cases of riding without crash helmets and 39,584 cases for having no driving license.
The southern province of Surat Thani had the highest accident rate, with 20 accidents and provinces with highest fatality rate for the day (4 deaths) were Chiang Rai and Prachuap Khiri Khan, while Surat Thani had the highest rate of injuries at 22.
