Public transport under strain as mass exodus begins
A bus travelling from Surin to Bangkok overturned on Mittrapap Road in Saraburi’s Muak Lek district yesterday. Four people were injured.
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Songkran is over for another year and country folk keen to get back to their city jobs were lining up at bus and rail stations from very early yesterday morning for tickets that seem as rare as seats to the World Cup final.
In the South, it is impossible to get a seat on a train until at least mid-week. Meanwhile, the death toll from road accidents during the first nine days of the 10-day Songkran holiday period rose to 441 on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said. However, it said many more accidents occurred yesterday because of the poor state of the vehicles being used as mass transport. Of several cases that were reported, one involved a bus that went out of control and turned over in Saraburi, injuring 14 passengers. The accident was said to have been caused by a breakage in the steering system. Another bus toppled over in Prachin Buri after a tyre burst, injuring 26 passengers. Most highways heading into Bangkok were jam-packed yesterday. Transport companies in many provinces had to double the number of buses to meet the demand for seats. Buri Ram bus terminal noted an increase in its services from 24 trips per day to 45. Tanongsak Pongprasert, director of the State Railway of Thailand's Southern Centre, said the trains would be able to cope with the mass exodus of people to the capital. With as many as 5,000 passengers expected, military officials had intensified security at stations through the southern border areas, especially from Sungai Kolok to Hat Yai, he said. Betong mayor Khunnawut Mongkolprachak said many Thai and foreign tourists, mostly from Malaysia and Singapore, had celebrated Songkran in the district. From April 10-15, almost 20,000 people had visited the district and spent about Bt50 million before returning home yesterday. Interior Minister Kongsak Wantana said yesterday that at the end of Saturday, there had been 4,941 road accidents resulting in 441 deaths over nine days of the 10-day holiday period. That was over 100 less than expected and down 40 over the number of deaths for the same period last year. Phitsanulok had the highest number of road fatalities after nine days of the Songkran holiday period, with 19 deaths. Nakhon Ratchasima was second with 16 deaths. The death toll in 16 provinces, including Phitsanulok, Nakhon Ratchasima, Lop Buri, Rayong and Uthai Thani, had exceeded the pre-Songkran estimate.
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