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Phuket suffers first road death of Songkran holidays

Phuket suffers first road death of Songkran holidays

PHUKET: Phuket suffered its first death of this year’s Songkran holidays with a motorbike accident yesterday (April 14), Day 4 of the Songkran Seven Days of Danger road-safety campaign.


By The Phuket News

Sunday 15 April 2018 01:15 PM


 

Day 4 of the campaign concluded at midnight last night.

The news came as the Department of Disaster Prevention & Mitigation (DDPM-Phuket) announced its official daily report for the Songkran Seven Days campaign this morning (April 15).

For the 24 hours of April 14, there were seven accidents reported in which six  people were injured, as follows:

  • Muang District: 4 accidents, 4 people injured
  • Kathu: 2 accidents, 1 person injured, 1 person dead
  • Thalang: 1 accident, 1 person injured

As with throughout the campaign, most accidents involved reckless driving and motorbike riders being injured by not wearing helmets, the DDPM-Phuket report noted.

The sole fatality of the campaign was that of Chinese national Li Jing, 29.

Mr Li was riding a motorbike along the Kamala-Patong road at 2:30pm yesterday when the motorbike collided with a pickup truck.

Mr Li suffered extensive injuries and was rushed to Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town, where he was pronounced dead.

Mr Li was not wearing a helmet at the time of the collision, noted the DDPM report.

Police reported having issued 2,192* fines for moving violations during Day 4 of the campaign, as follows:

1,084 Not wearing helmets

41 Operating an unsafe/illegally modified motorcycle

67 Drunk driving

125 Not wearing seatbelts

548 Driving without a license

94 Speeding

61 Running a red light

72 Ghost driving (driving opposite traffic flow)

35 Dangerously cutting off other motorists in traffic

65 Using mobile phones while driving.

At the meeting this morning, Phuket Vice Governor Prakob Wongmaneerung repeated the order for officials to enforce the safety mandate handed down by Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong on April 4, when the Governor called on car and motorbike rental operators to take steps improve road safety during the Songkran holidays, such as by confirming that tourists were properly licensed to drive the vehicles they were renting befgore allowing such tourists to rent the cars and motorbikes. (See story here.)

 


* The DDPM report gave the breakdown of fines issued as listed above but gave the total as 2,202 fines issued.