Opening the meeting at Boat Lagoon Resort, Dr Wiwat Ketamanoot, from the Provincial Traffic Accident Support Team, said, “Every half an hour one person dies on the roads in the southern provinces.
“In Phuket alone, two people die every three days. We have been discussing all the cases on the island to see if we can establish why people died in these accidents.
“We have funding from taxes on alcohol and cigarettes. We are going to use this money to develop our network to reduce road accidents.”
He gave an example of how analysis of accidents can save lives.
“There were several accidents at the Darasamut intersection [next to Central Festival]. We found that many were caused by the flashing amber traffic lights during the night. So we asked the Highways Department to change the lights back to red, amber and green.
As the result of this being done at 10 sets of lights, the death rate dropped from 200 people a year to 147.
“In Phuket, only 40 per cent of drivers used to wear helmets while riding a motorcycle. Since we erected ‘Wear a helmet’ signs around Phuket, the number of people wearing helmets grew to the point where the number of helmets for sale was not enough to meet demand.”
Drink driving is another problem.
“To reduce the number of accidents from drunk driving, Governor Maitri Inthusut has supported us by giving us the funds [for the police] to buy more breathalysers.”
Dr Kajornsak Kaewjarat, Director of the Phuket Public Health Department, said, with a grin, “I admire the foreigners who, although they do not wear their shirts while riding their motorcycles, still wear helmets.”
The most senior official at the meeting, Dr Sophon Maekthon, Director-General of the Department of Disease Control at the Ministry of Health told the meeting the role of the media was important. “[Stories in the] media [about accidents] help to raise awareness that we need to behave according to the rules – which can reduce the number of road accidents. Our target is to halve the number of fatalities per year by the year 2020.
“Our safety management policy has six main elements: the network power of doctors, hospitals, police and media; roads and highways, vehicle inspections by the Transport Department; tackling people not wearing helmets, speeding and driving drunk – which involves the police; the Health Department; and Information Power.
“Our duty at the Ministry of Health is to ensure trauma centres to develop emergency procedures that reduce the annual death rate to no more than 20 per 100,000 population.
“To do this, we need information on every accident – time, place and personal details [of the victim] to carry out a deep investigation that will reveal what caused each accident.
“It is not just the power of information; network power is also a main factors in reducing the number of road accidents. We have a policy to reduce the accidents by 50 per cent. We also need the police to get people to wear helmets, not to drive drunk and to wear safety belts.”
He noted that national statistics for last year and the year before showed that roughly two thirds of the people who die from road accidents do so at the scene of the crash, and said there were five main contributing factors: speeding, not wearing a helmet, drunk driving, falling asleep, and hitting dangerous objects by the road side, such as trees, road signs, and concrete blocks.
In the past five years, the number of people dying on the road has not fallen at all, Dr Sophon said.
However, the death rates vary considerably from one province to another. “[Last year] there were no road deaths in Trad, Bung Kan, Mae Hong Son, Phang Nga and Pattani.
“The highest death rates were in Nakorn Ratchassima, Surat Thani and Udon Thani.
“The highest percentage of accidents was between 4 and 8 pm.
“We are offering bonuses for police who catch law-breakers on the road, and to citizens who help them to do so.”
The discussions continue tomorrow (January 22), with the meeting breaking up into a variety of workshops.