“The aim is to reduce the number of victims from road accidents to less than 10 per 100,000 people across the country by 2020,” Phuket Vice Governor Snith Sriwihok told a meeting at the Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) in Phuket Town.
“To achieve this target, Phuket is following the national policy by developing an ‘accident network’ in the province in order to have the most effective road-accident protection measures that will actually reduce the number of road accidents,” he said.
This year the Songkran Seven Days road-safety campaign will be conducted under the theme “Khab Rod Mee Namjai Raksa Winai Jarajorn” (“Drive carefully, follow traffic rules”).
As usual, the campaign will include checkpoints, Songkran safe water-play zones, enforcement of speed limits and road-safety measures at known traffic accident “black spots”, V/Gov Snith explained.
A road-safety emergency response command centre will also be set up during the campaign, he added.
This year’s Songkran Seven Days road-safety campaign comes after 478 people killed and 4,128 injured in road accidents during the “Seven Days of Danger” from Dec 29 to Jan 4, making the 2017 New Year death toll the highest in the 10 years that records have been kept. (See story here.)
It also follows the worst Songkran death-and-injury toll from road accidents on record. Last year 442 people died from traffic accidents over the seven days, 78 more than in 2015, with drink driving being the number one cause of accidents. (See stories here and here.)
In Phuket, three people died and 62 people suffered injuries in 57 reported road accidents last year – up from 57 reported accidents leaving 58 people with injuries – but zero deaths – in 2015. (See story here.)