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11 December 09
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Annual police crackdown on drunk driving
hua hin, thailand The statistics are grim reading every New Year, and Songkran, in Thailand. Thousands die in road accidents, and a significant proportion involve alcohol, and a large number of the deaths are people riding motorbikes. This year a particularly severe crackdown has been announced, with much stiffer penalties for those caught driving under the influence of alcohol. Motorists caught driving while drunk over the New Year period face being jailed with no chance of a suspended sentence, law enforcement officials have said, and warned that prison sentences would be strictly enforced. The Don’t Drive Drunk Foundation says that road accidents caused by drunk drivers had increased every
day on average in Thailand. The number of road accidents last year rose to 607 a day during the New Year festival. About 84% of the accidents involved motorcycles while drink driving was responsible for 41% of crashes. It has been announced that Continued on page 2
INSIDE AWOL year for the past three years with the average annual toll of 12,067 deaths resulting in economic losses of 240 billion baht. Road accidents over the New Year period tend to be more than double normal times. Over the past two years, there were 280 road accidents and 35 deaths a
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