The campaign was announced by Phuket Governor Chockchai Dejamornthan during a meeting held with relevant officials at Provincial Hall yesterday (Dec 7) where strategies were brainstormed as to how to reduce the number of deaths caused by accidents on Phuket roads to less than 50 deaths per year by 2017.
Officials gave the campaign the official title of “P3D Phuket Drink Don’t Drive”.
Among those in attendance at yesterday’s meeting were Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Teeraphol Thipjaroen, Phuket Provincial Chief Administrative Officer (Palad) Thawornwat Khongkaew, Mr Udomporn Kanjana from the Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office and Dr Wiwat Seetamanotch, southern region consultant for the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.
During the meeting, Dr Wiwat revealed that the number of accidents resulting in death on the island’s roads numbered 144 from January 1-October 31.
“Phuket has had 144 death within ten months, about 84 per cent of those were males. Around 80% of vehicle accidents involved motorbikes, and around 80% of motorcyclist killed were not wearing a helmet.
“The main age group involved in fatal accidents was between 21-25 followed by those aged 16-20. Most accidents happened between midnight and 3am, and then between 3am and 6am,” Dr Wiwat said.
“Most of these fatal accidents took place in Phuket Town, while Kamala had the lowest record, two. “The Thai Health Promotion Foundation believes that by enforcing traffic laws and also promoting road safety is the best way to help reduce the number of deaths on Phuket roads,” he added.
Gov Chockchai stated that in an attempt to reduce road fatalities officials will strictly enforce the law, cultivate traffic discipline among target groups including government officials and big businesses such as hotels and students, and lastly by promoting the P3D: Phuket Drink Don’t Drive campaign.
“After seeing the stats for deaths caused by drunk driving, which is very high, we need to have this Phuket Drink Don’t Drive campaign.
“The most important thing is to have people join this campaign. We may need to have street parade or sound trucks close to Christmas or New Year promoting the campaign to bring accident prevention and accident reduction awareness to the public. However, we have to discuss further details in a follow-up meeting,” Gov Chockchai said.
“It is our target to reduce the number of deaths on Phuket roads to less than 50 per year. The number of accidents may not actually reduce, but the number of deaths must be reduced as at present our records show we have more than 100 deaths per year.
“Our goal is certainly a challenging one, but it will be a good thing if we accomplish this challenge. I believe if we all support this campaign we will be able to achieve our goal,” he added.
Maj Gen Teeraphol added, “From accident stats we can see that accidents often occur after midnight so we will set up more police checkpoints during this time. We will need support from volunteers to help out at each checkpoint location.
“We will also add more speed detectors and vehicle weighing stations in high-risk areas,” he said.