An official said on Thursday that Forty two people were killed and 565 others were injured in road accidents in Thailand, the first day of an annual police watch period.
Most accidents involved motorcycles and happened in the city of Chiang Mai, 680 kilometers north of Bangkok, said Sopon Mekthon, permanent secretary to the Public Health Ministry.
Each year, Thai police step up their watch over a so-called “dangerous’’ seven-day period around the New Year holiday.
More officers will be deployed around the clock between Saturday and Wednesday at drunk-driving checkpoints across the country, police said.
The tally from Thursday, the first day of the watch period, shows a spike from last year’s figures of 39 deaths and 456 injuries.
Road accidents over the full New Year holiday period last year killed a total of 380 people and injured 3,505 others.
Drunk driving and speeding accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the 524 road accidents, Mekthon said.
Despite tough laws against drunk driving, road accidents caused by alcohol consumption continue to increase each year in Thailand.
Last year, a World Health Organisation Report found that Thailand was second only to Libya for road deaths.
The UN agency estimated that as many as 36.2 people per 100,000 die on the country’s roadways, or around 24,237 people per year.
Source: (dpa/NAN)
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