However, five people were injured in five accidents, the Phuket office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation DDPM-Phuket) reported this morning.
Meanwhile, Phuket police reported issuing 987 fines for moving violations during the 24-hour period, as follows:
• 30 fined for operating an unsafe/illegally modified motorcycle
• 60 fined for not wearing seatbelts
• 276 fined for driving without a licence
• 0 fined for speeding
• 66 fined for running a red light
• 51 fined for ghost driving (driving opposite traffic flow)
• 36 fined for dangerously cutting off other motorists in traffic
• 33 fined for using mobile phones while driving.
• 13 people were arrested for drunk driving during the period.
• 422 people fined for not wearing helmets
Across Thailand, a total of 76 people were killed and 3,587 injured on the first of the Seven Days of Danger yesterday, according to the website for the national road-safety agency ThaiRSC.
Bangkok recorded the highest injured number in accidents with 340 people while Khon Kaen, Phitsanulok and Lopburi province had a nation-leading four deaths on Thursday (Dec 27).
Officials have not set a “target” for this year’s campaign. As it stands “just less” than the previous three New Year holiday periods will do, Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana told a provincial road-safety council in the run up to the Seven Days campaign.
Phuket suffered two deaths and 46 people injured in 46 accidents during the seven-day period for New Year 2018, compared with two people killed and 81 injured during the holiday period for New Year 2017.
Both those years pale in comparison to new Year 2016, when seven people in Phuket were killed and 75 others received hospital treatment for injuries sustained in road accidents.
The launch of this year’s campaign, which comes under the banner “Driving with kindness. Maintaining traffic discipline”, comes after a week of horrific accidents on the island, and a major wipeout just a few kilometres north of the bridges off Phuket, where a minivan carrying two Indian tourists to Phuket International Airport was taken out broadside by a BMW sedan.