Drink-driving cases top traffic violations
A total of 2,084 cases of drink-driving were reported with drivers placed on court-ordered probation during the first four days of the Songkran road safety campaign, according to the Department of Probation.
Witthawan Sunthornkhajit, its director-general, said yesterday the number of court-ordered probation cases during the first four days, April 10-13, was 2,095.
Of that total, 2,084 cases involved drink-driving and the rest involved driving under the influence of drugs, he said.
On April 13, the number of courtordered probation cases was 160 and all but one involved drink-driving.
As of April 13, the number of people required to wear electronic monitoring bracelets stood at eight with no new cases. The offenders were not allowed to leave their houses from 10pm to 4am for 15 days.
The top three provinces for drinkdriving cases were Samut Prakan (154), Buri Ram (144) and Chaiyaphum (140), according to Mr Witthawan.
Boontham Lertsukhikasem, director of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, said he had told local authorities to set up more checkpoints on secondary and local roads after a spike in road accidents.
Local officials were also told to step up measures against drink-driving and speeding targeting motorcyclists and make sure that sales of alcohol was in compliance with the laws, he said.
Meanwhile, 29 people were killed and 392 injured in 376 traffic accidents on Tuesday, the fourth day of the Songkran road safety campaign, said interior deputy permanent secretary Ansit Sampantharat.
Mr Ansit, chairman of the centre for the prevention and reduction of road accidents, said the figures raised the total number of accidents during the four days to 1,465, with 152 deaths and 1,494 injuries.
The death toll, 29, was substantially down on Monday’s 54 total for those killed on the roads.
On Tuesday, speeding accounted for 36% of accidents, followed by drinkdriving, 28%. Nearly one-third of the accidents occurred between 4pm-8pm.
Nakhon Si Thammarat recorded the most accidents at 16, and most injuries at 17. The provinces with most deaths were Bangkok and Kalasin, with three each. Khon Kaen in the Northeast reported the highest death toll, eight.