New Year's Day road deaths 37% higher than last year

Uthairat Chaiprasert, assistant to the justice minister, said yesterday that Friday's road casualties had surpassed the carnage for the first day of last year by 37 per cent for deaths and 50 per cent for injuries.

Half of the traffic accidents on the fourth of the "seven dangerous days" were blamed on drunk driving, followed by speeding at 20.7 per cent, he said.

Most accidents involved motorcycles at 84.9 per cent and occurred between 4pm-8pm. Checkpoints stopped 715,516 vehicles and arrested 69,515 motorists, with the main offence being not carrying a driver's licence at 23,006 cases, followed by bikers not wearing a helmet at 21,195 cases.

Cumulative casualties had reached 238 deaths, 2,725 injured in 2,510 accidents, Uthairat said.

While Yasothon was the only province still to report no accidents, Nakhon Si Thammarat had the most at 83 followed by Phetchabun at 82 and Chiang Mai at 80.

Chanthaburi and Ayutthaya were the most deadly at 10 deaths each, while Phetchabun had the most injuries at 99 followed by Nakhon Si Thammarat at 98.

The government began the seven-day safe driving campaign on Tuesday to reduce road casualties by 5 per cent from the last New Year break, which had logged 367 deaths and 4,107 injuries in road accidents nationwide.

Uthairat also said the Excise Department had arrested 277 roadside shops for selling alcoholic drinks without permission and had revoked 26 liquor licences for selling booze during times and at venues that were prohibited.