Thai new year festival kicks off, deaths in accidents doubles

Thailand today heralded the New Year with people offering prayers to Lord Buddha and splashing water on each other but authorities are worried over the spike in number of deaths in road accidents which doubled this year at 116.
The three-day festival Songkran is traditionally celebrated by paying respect to elders and visiting temples.
Thais and foreign tourists take part in the splashing of water mixed with talcum powder. Thailand hopes the festival this year will generate revenues amounting to over USD 400 million. International tourist arrivals in 2016 are expected to hit a record high of 32 million.
Tourist Police have estimated that more than 200,000 Chinese will be in Thailand over a seven-day period.

But the holiday, which takes place at at the peak of Thailand's summer season, is also known as one of the world's biggest water fights where crowds of revellers douse passers-by.
The death toll due to dangerous driving also spikes every year during this period. The week is also called the "seven dangerous days".

The Songkran festival has seen 116 deaths in road accidents, nearly double to that of last year's two-day tally.
Despite the government's stepped-up road-safety campaign, 981 people were hurt in 907 accidents last year.
The fatalities were a 96.6 per cent increase over this point in 2015.

The Interior Ministry's road safety centre said 64 people were killed and 550 hurt in 520 traffic accidents.
Drunk-driving and speeding remained the primary causes of accidents, with 81 per cent of the incidents involving motorcycles.
Police arrested 20,094 people for drink-driving and 549 vehicles were impounded at checkpoints between Saturday and Tuesday, National Council for Peace and Order deputy spokeswoman Col Sirichan Ngathong said today.
Nonjit Natepukka, director of the Community Affairs and Community Service Division, said official records showed the number of drunk drivers arrested during New Year celebrations continued to increase, and most of them were teenagers, both new and repeat offenders.

Based on the latest assessment, the probation department has found that ordering convicted drunk drivers to perform their required community service by cleaning roads, cutting trees or helping hospital personnel look after patients being treated for road accidents failed to make some of them realise and change their dangerous behaviour.
As a result, Nonjit said the agency wanted to take the mandatory community work to the next level by proposing that offenders be sent to help hospital staff in the morgue in a bid to make them better understand the effects of drink driving.