Women volunteers called on to boost road safety

A total of 100 women volunteers have joined a three-day training course, which officially began at Phuket Community Hall in Phuket Town yesterday (Dec 20).

Presiding over the official opening was Pol Maj Gen Saksira Phuak-am, Deputy Commissioner of the Region 8 Police, joined by Phuket Vice Governor Danai Sunanthakun, Phuket Provincial Police Deputy Commander Pol Col Noraset Intarachan and Rewat Areerob, President of the Phuket Provincial Administration Organisation (PPAO).

The training is being held in conjunction with the Phuket branch of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), which is a key government agency for driving road-safety campaigns throughout the country.

“The aim of the project is to create a network of women volunteers for security in the community, to take care of safety and reduce the risk of using cars on the road, and to be ready to watch out for dangers in the community to ensure peace and order,” Maj Gen Saksira said.

The training will continue through to tomorrow (Dec 22), Col Noraset explained.

“From the situation of road accidents in Phuket in 2019-2021, it was found that the death rate from road accidents was 41.3, 32.1 and 21 per 100,000 population, respectively,” Col Noraset said.

“Although the death rate is decreasing, we are still unable to achieve the goal of preventive operations. and reduce road accidents according to the 5th National Plan of the Road Safety Directing Center, which aims to reduce the death rate to 12 per 100,000 people by the year 2027,” he said.

Col Noraset made no mention of the death rate this year, which has already seen 103 people killed and 16,606 people injured requiring hospital treatment resulting from accidents on Phuket’s roads.

Last year, while under severe travel constraints greatly hampering the arrival of tourists on the island, Phuket suffered 70 deaths and 13,138 people injured in road accidents.

In 2020, despite the tourism shutdown coming into effect in April, Phuket recorded 106 deaths and 16,859 people injured in 16,965 accidents on the island’s roads.

“The main cause of road accidents remains risky driving behaviour, such as not wearing a helmet, speeding, drunk driving and driving against traffic flow,” Col Noraset said.

“Phuket Provincial Office [under Governor Narong Woonciew] through the Phuket Provincial Police has therefore continually tightened traffic discipline, but people still violate traffic laws and traffic discipline has not improved,” he said.

“It is necessary to increase the potential of people in the community to participate in solving problems that arise in the community. The Phuket Provincial Police therefore organised this project to create a network of community security women volunteers to assist in managing the risky behavior of people using the road in the community, as well as preventing drugs from entering the community and to watch out for dangers in the community to ensure peace and order,” he said.