The northern province of Chiang Rai achieved a notorious hat-trick in the New Year road toll on Wednesday, having the most accidents with 39, the most deaths, at four, and the most injuries, at 46, the Road Safety Centre said yesterday.
Chanthaburi and Chon Buri had the most accumulated deaths from road accidents, while Chiang Rai had the most accidents and injuries in the first two days of the seven dangerous New Year days, said Paijit Warachit, permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry.
Accumulated accidents were reported as 1,115, killing 91 people and injuring 1,225 others, Paijit said.
On Wednesday alone, 667 road accidents occurred nationwide, down by 215 cases or 24.38 per cent from December 30, 2008, he said. There were 51 deaths, down by 36 cases or 41.4 per cent from the same date last year, and 729 injuries, down by 231 cases or 24.1 per cent.
Motorcycles were involved in the majority of Wednesday's accidents, at 84 per cent. About 37 per cent of the accidents resulted from drunk driving, followed by speeding at 20.4 per cent. Most incidents occurred on a road's straight stretch, at 61.2 per cent, and especially from 4pm to 8pm.
The 67,483 officials at 2,672 checkpoints nationwide managed to check on 646,781 vehicles and arrested 61,836 traffic law violators, mostly those failing to show driver's licences and those failing to wear helmets while riding motorcycles.
