SONGKHLA, Jan 3 — More buses have been prepared as New Year celebrants began returning to Bangkok to resume work next Monday after enjoying a five-day holiday upcountry.
The general atmosphere at a bus station in the southern district of Hat Yai, known as a shopping paradise of the deep South was lively again early Saturday as holidaymakers packed the station awaiting to board buses headed for Bangkok.
Tickets were fully booked in advance with bus drivers having to undertake an alcohol check before starting their long journeys.
Similar scenes were also seen in other parts of the country.
Pol Col Pongsak Chunak, deputy police chief of Prachuap Khiri Khan, has ordered subordinates to adjust traffic operations with more police personnel posted along main roads and additional checkpoints set up.
Despite stricter traffic controls, a road accident was reported slightly before dawn after a car smashed into a tree on the highway roadside in one district of the province, police said.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
Interior Ministry’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department has announced that over the first four days of the seven-day road accident monitoring period for the New Year holidays, there were 2,104 road accidents in which 227 persons died nd 2,163 injured.
On Friday alone, a total of 367 road accidents took place nationwide, killing 37 people and injuring 381 persons, said the Department.
The Department said drunk driving was still the major cause of accidents followed by excessive speeding.
It said 82.41 per cent of vehicles involved in accidents were motorcycles. (MCOT online news)
