On Friday, the second day of the so-called “seven dangerous New Year holidays”, 576 road accidents happened, killing 49 people and injuring 609, said Karun Sakulpradit, permanent secretary for the Education Ministry. It was Karun’s turn to address journalists yesterday on the monitored road accident statistics at the Road Accidents Prevention and Reduction for 2018 New Year Operation Centre at the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department. He said most – nearly 78 per cent – of vehicles in the accidents were motorcycles. Prayut said heavy congestion often occurred during long holidays, like the New Year holidays, because most vehicles used the main roads. He said the government might build short roads as bypasses for heavily congested main roads.

Source: The Nation Bangkok December 30, 2017 17:03 UTC