'No budget' for lighting on deadly stretch of road
PHUKET: Phuket authorities held a meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday (April 23) to discuss ways to reduce the road accident toll on Pa Khlok Rd.
Paritta Wangkiat
Tuesday 24 April 2012, 10:38AM
The meeting follows a blockade of the road by about 100 villagers on April 13, after two of their number died after being rammed from behind by a pickup truck.
The mob dispersed after authorities promised to install street lights on a 1.5-kilometre stretch of the road, from Pa Khlok Public Health Office to Wat Pa Khlok Temple.
Yesterday’s meeting heard, however, that there is no money to install lighting.
Responsibility for the road falls under the Phuket Highways District (PHD), whose request for a B3.6-million budget for street lights was turned down by “central authorities” last year.
A PHD representative at the meeting said that the central authorities seemed to regard the matter as low priority, and the PHD had little hope that another application for funds this year would be any more successful.
An application for emergency funding can be made, but there is some question as to who should make the application – the PHD or the Pa Khlok Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor), through whose jurisdiction the road runs.
Apart from the lighting, two other proposals to boost road safety in Pa Khlok were made: to install a barrier between the east-bound and west-bound lanes of the road, and to conduct a road safety campaign among villagers – the rear light on the motorbike of the two people killed in the crash was reportedly not working.
The PHD will arrange a meeting with villagers soon to collect information and hear possible solutions.
