New Year holiday traffic accidents claim 146 lives so far

Rescue workers attend the deadly crash scene after a pickup truck smashed into a power pole in Muang district, Nakhon Ratchasima, on Saturday. A passenger was killed and the driver was seriously injured. Police assumed the driver dozed off when the accident happened at 11.24am. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)

In the first three days of the government’s New Year road safety campaign, there were 1,183 accidents in which 146 people were killed and 1,182 others injured. The southern province of Surat Thani had the most accidents, according to the Interior Ministry.

Chotenarin Kerdsom, deputy permanent secretary of the Interior Ministry, said the figures were from Dec 29 to 31, 2022.

During the period, the most road accidents – 42 – happened in Surat Thani. The highest number of injured people (46) was reported in the northeastern province of Sakon Nakhon and the highest provincial death toll (10) was in the northernmost province of Chiang Rai, he said.

On Dec 31 alone there were 466 traffic accidents, injuring 467 people and leaving 59 dead.

The figures were lower than those during the previous New Year period. On the first three days of the New Year road safety campaign last year there were 1,339 accidents, 151 fatalities and 1,320 injured people.

This year speeding was the most common cause (36.70%) of New Year traffic accidents, while the second most common cause was drink driving (30.04%). Motorcycles were involved in 82.56% of the accidents. The percentages were approximately the same as last year.