EXTENDED celebrations for the Songkran Festival have been blamed for an increase in road accidents involving drunk driving, however the Interior Ministry has assured that the country’s roads will be safer this year due to more traffic checkpoints and strict law enforcement.

The Road Safety Centre (RSC) yesterday reported the outcome of the second day of operations for the Thai New Year, to prevent traffic accidents during the “seven dangerous days” of the holidays from April 11 to April 17. It was found that road safety during the first two days of the holiday period did not improve, as the number of accidents, injuries and deaths were all higher compared to the same period last year.

From Wednesday to Thursday, there were a total 1,026 road accidents, which injured 1,085 persons and killed 99 persons, while during the same period last year there were only 994 accidents, 1,035 injured people, and 95 deaths.

The director of the Academic Centre for Road Safety, Thanapong Jinvong, pointed out that the increased rate of accidents was because people tend to celebrate for a longer period, adding to the official three days, resulting in more accidents from drunk driving.

“Observation of people’s travel behaviour during recent years reveals that they tend to leave Bangkok earlier and have longer periods to celebrate Songkran at their homes,” Thanapong said.

“Therefore we can see that the peak day for road accidents, which is usually the first day of Songkran celebrations on April 13, has shifted to a day earlier – April 12 – as many people reached their homes and start the celebrations earlier.”

His conclusions matched the road accident statistics of the RSC, which also revealed that the major cause of accidents were drunk driving (43.66 per cent), speeding (28.07 per cent), and ignoring signal red lights (0.6 per cent).

RSC revealed that Chiang Rai had the highest number of accidents and injured people, while Nakhon Ratchasima had the highest death toll. RSC reported that 77.44 per cent of road accidents involved motorcycles.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Nisit Jansomwong stated that the authorities were wary of this worrying trend and the ministry had already ordered an investigation to find the reasons for the higher accident rate.

However, Nisit said that as they only had statistics for the first two days of the seven-day operation there was still a chance that the total number of accidents would be reduced.

“The officers in the field have been ordered to scrupulously collect evidence from every accident site and investigate the cause of each accident in order to use this information to improve accident prevention measures,” he said.

According to the operation report by the RSC, law enforcement was more intense this year; a total of 764,035 vehicles were stopped at checkpoints, which was a 9.2-per-cent increase from the same period last year. The prosecution rate also increased by 44.24 per cent compared to last year, with a total of 154,733 people arrested for reckless driving. There were a total of 2,032 traffic checkpoints across the country and more than 65,492 officers were working to ensure road safety.

This was the eleventh year that the authorities of Bang Nam Phueng district organised the unusual contest for those overweight, but it was the first time that the stage was reserved for transgenders.

The name of the contest was “Miss Elephant of Bang Nam Phueng”. The candidates were whittled down to 20 before the final round was held on Thursday evening.

The winner of this year’s contest was Napatcha Sermsenabun, 29, whose weight was 128.1 kilogram, while the first runner up was Pumirapee Ungamonboon, 29, 131.9kg; followed by Piyakorn Sairat, 26, 127kg; Chalitawan Laocharoen, 26, 166kg and Natpacharaporn Wijittanuwat, 29, 122.4kg.

Samnao Rassamithat, chairman of Tambon Administration Organisation, said this was the only beauty contest of its kind in Thailand.

He asked people to wait for next year when all 11 previous winning beauty queens are expected to again enter the contest in a search for the most beautiful queen.

Napatcha said that she was delighted to have won the award this year as she had participated in the contest for five consecutive years.

Napatcha said she will show her parents the award as her childhood dream was now already fulfilled.

The Princess is the Special Zero Hunger Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

In a video message on Thursday to the FAO’s Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific in Fiji, she said: “Over-reliance on a few crops means we are not spending enough time and resources producing other, more nutritious, foods such as milk, eggs, legumes, fruits and vegetables. We must strive to diversify agriculture to create dietary diversity, to ensure healthy diets and to address malnutrition in all its forms.”

During the event’s opening ceremony, FAO director-general Jose Graziano da Silva urged Asian and Pacific countries to sharpen their focus on achieving “zero hunger” by reducing rural poverty, addressing hunger and malnutrition and adapting the agricultural sectors to climate change.

“Countries need to step up their efforts to |bring the fight against hunger back on track,” he said.

Despite the region’s “remarkable progress” in reducing undernourishment over the last two decades, progress has slowed and the number of people suffering hunger has increased in some areas, especially Southeast Asia, said Graziano da Silva. Of the 815 million people who suffered from hunger in 2016, 490 million, or 60 per cent, lived in Asia and the Pacific.

Zero hunger by 2030, one of the official UN Sustainable Development Goals, remains within reach, Graziano da Silva said as he urged that countries build resilience in the rural communities where poverty and hunger were still concentrated. The goal is to go beyond eradicating hunger to ending all forms of malnutrition, he said. To achieve that will require that countries assist poor farmers, fisher folk and pastoralists to adjust their production systems and practices and address economic, social and technical constraints faced by farmers.

The region’s rapid economic growth has not translated into higher incomes for rural communities, Grazianao da Silva noted, and he suggested implementing social protection systems and school feeding programmes where the produce is sourced locally from nearby family farmers.

Graziano da Silva invited countries to propose how FAO could best assist them in planning and implementing actions, as well as mobilising financial support to build rural livelihood resilience.

FAO currently supports 12 projects in the region under the Green Climate Fund, a mechanism that helps developing countries finance climate change efforts.

The move came after the release of its 2017 annual report on Thursday which recorded at least 993 executions in 23 countries last year with the Chinese government putting the most people to death.

The figure showed a 4 per cent decline from 2016, when 1,032 executions were recorded.

According to the report, Thailand last year issued 75 death sentences. The number was reduced from 216 in 2016.

Although Thailand is one of 56 countries that still has the death penalty, the last execution was conducted in August 2009, said Piyanut Kotsan, director of Amnesty International Thailand.

“Thailand is now walking towards being an abolitionist in practice. If there is no execution in 10 consecutive years, the United Nations will recognise Thailand as a nation without execution in practice. It would mean a significant step forward in the development of human rights,” she said.

The latest update from Department of Corrections in late December said there were 502 inmates with the death sentence, of which 404 were male. More than half were sentenced for drug-related crimes.

The group also called for the government to continue working towards its human rights road map by reducing the number of crimes with a death penalty.

Amnesty called for Thailand to accede to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aimed at the abolition of the death penalty.

Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam still have the penalty.

They also urged tax incentives for private operators of nursing homes catering to elderly Thais with no relatives as well as foreign retirees, with the latter group also helping boost the country’s income.

The concept of “Ageing in Place” – the ability to live in one’s own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level – is most appropriate for use in the context of the ageing Thai society, said Antika Sawadsri, head of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang’s Inclusive Designed Environment and Research Centre.

Antika said the modern era enabled younger generations to care for their elderly relatives using advanced technologies such as Internet-connected CCTV feeds linked to smartphones and an elderly persons’ fall surveillance system. Having the seniors staying in their familiar environment and community was better for their mental health, she said.

Home modification, which may cost about Bt100,000-Bt200,000 for each house, would be required for fall-proof bathrooms, more ramps, relocation of the elderly persons’ bedroom on the ground floor, or installation of an elevator or platform lift. The Social Development and Human Security Ministry subsidy of Bt20,000 for each house with an elderly person was not enough. She suggested low-interest loans from public banks as a solution.

Meanwhile communities should provide additional facilities such as common areas for the seniors’ meeting/activities, seating every 200 metres, wider and declustered footpaths, low-floor buses, and malls having wheelchair for customers’ use within premises. Such changes have been made in Japan – a good model for ageing society infrastructure, Antika added.

In a separate development to prepare for the ageing society, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation earlier this month signed a memorandum of understanding with five universities for setting up the Universal Design Centre (UDC). The central office has already been opened at Chulalongkorn University to provide counselling for home modifications and designs to accommodate elderly residents. The four other institutes are Chiang Mai University, Thammasat University, Maha Sarakham University and Prince of Songkhla University, each of which would establish a UDC regional branch office by August.

The move followed a report that an average of three senior persons died per day due to falls. Nearly 1,000 elderly died from complications caused by falling in 2014 and another 2014 survey said that only 24.6 per cent of the country’s houses with elderly residents had made proper home modifications.

Thailand is on the way to become a fully ageing society in three years, with 20 per cent of the population being those above age 60.

NEARLY 4 million people are expected to travel within Thailand during the Songkran holidays between today and Sunday, prompting authorities to step up measures for public safety.

Police promised to make this year’s Songkran Festival safer for all revellers by deploying more personnel.

Authorities and experts, however, said it was everyone’s responsibility to ensure safety, especially from crime and accidents during the busy travel period and at celebrations.

Tourist Police deputy commander Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakpal said about 3 million domestic tourists and 930,000 tourists from abroad were expected to travel within the country during the three days of Songkran. The number of travellers was a big increase over the previous years, he said.

In order to provide safety to all tourists visiting Thailand during Songkran, Surachet said 5,000 tourist police officers and volunteers would be deployed to assist tourists.

“Tourism is a major source of revenue for the country and the Songkran Festival is a peak period for tourism. People from around the world come to Thailand to travel and celebrate the festival, while many Thais also use the long weekends to travel within the country and return home as well,” he said.

“So, we have to take care all of the tourists and travellers and make sure that their journey will be pleasant.”

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports said that within the relatively short period from April 1 to 17 last year, Thailand welcomed more than 1.53 million international tourists, while 1.25 million Thais also travelled within the country during that period. The seven-day period from April 11-17, 2017 generated up to Bt45.4 billion in revenue for the country.

However, Surachet said that the people could not rely solely on police officers to provide safety and they must take personal precautions to ensure they don’t land themselves in dangerous situations.

“I would like to caution all people not to enjoy Songkran by putting their safety at risk by getting too drunk or travelling to dangerous places alone. This kind of risky behaviour has already caused many people to become victims of crimes such as physical attacks or robbery,” he said.

Another threat to public safety has been the high number of road accidents. Along with the New Year celebrations, accidents during Songkran have led to a huge number of fatalities every year.

Last year’s statistics showed there were 3,690 road accidents during the seven monitoring days of Songkran, which killed 390 persons and injured 3,808 persons.

Follow basic rules

The director of the Academic Centre for Road Safety, Thanapong Jinvong, said that in order to avoid road accidents during this dangerous period, people who drive and travel by car should strictly comply with traffic rules by driving within speed limits. They must not drink before driving and must make sure that they get enough rest before sitting behind the wheel to make sure that they do not fall asleep while driving. He said ignoring these basic rules was the primary cause of road accidents.

More than 3,000 motorists were found to be driving while drunk on the first of the so-called “seven dangerous days” of the Songkran holiday.

The deputy spokesperson of the National Council for Peace and Order, Colonel Sirichan Ngathong, said yesterday that 156 vehicles were seized on Wednesday and 2,716 motorcyclists and other drivers were charged with drunk driving.

Sirichan also said stepped-up spot checks on roads had identified 3,339 cases of drunk driving.

More than 1,860 of those cases involved motorcyclists, she said, and 105 motorcycles were seized and |356 driving licences were confiscated.

Authorities arrested 1,457 motorcyclists who will be going to court, while the rest were fined. The remainder of the cases involved private cars and transport vehicles, with 41 vehicles seized and 82 driving licences confiscated. A total of 1,259 motorists face charges in court and the rest were fined.

Thanapong also advised other travellers who use public transportation to be wary of the safety standards of the vehicle they ride. Despite strict measures imposed on public transport carriers, there were still many illegal bus and van |operators whose vehicles did not meet the proper safety standards, he said.

AS holidaymakers started to reach their destinations nationwide yesterday for the traditional Thai New Year celebrations this weekend, various sites confirmed their readiness to host impressive events and also implement public safety measures.

At Bangkok’s Khao San Road, police spokesman Pol General Weerachai Songmetta led Thai actors Chatchawal Phetchwisit, Wichan Meesom and Kosawis Piyasakulkaew and singer Treechada “Ice R-siam” Kimtin to promote safe Songkran celebrations. They urged people to refrain from wearing too-revealing clothes (or risk a Bt5,000 fine), sexual harassment/molestation (up to 10 years in jail and up to Bt200,000 fine), or using high-pressure water guns (sellers face up to six months in jail and up to Bt50,000 in fine).

Khao San Road, which is famous for water wars every year, is expected to draw 30,000 visitors a day from today until Sunday. Some 960 police would guard the road and nearby areas during this period.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) kicked off the Songkran Festival with a beautiful procession carrying the famous Phra Buddha Sihing image from the National Museum to a temporary shrine in Lumpini Park where it will remain until Sunday.

The procession through the streets of old Bangkok was flagged off by BMA Governor Pol General Aswin Kwanmuang.

The BMA will also host an alms-offering rite at 7am today for 166 Buddhist monks before hosting Songkran-related activities at the park, including a Songkran beauty queen contest.

Down South, Thais and Malaysian and Singaporean visitors started Songkran water wars at the site for “Hatyai Midnight Songkran” on Sanehanusorn Road in Songkhla, many hours ahead of the event launch, while security officers were there to guard revellers.

Chiang Mai Governor Pawin Chamniprasert led officials and public members in a morning alms-offering rite for 60 Buddhist monks at the Three Kings Monument Plaza in Muang district. It marked the 722nd anniversary of the establishment of Nophaburi Sri Nakhon Ping Chiang Mai as the capital city of the Lanna Kingdom. The rite also launched Songkran celebrations.

Various sites were ready for the celebrations, including the Tha Pae Gate plaza, the Wat Lok Molee for Lanna-style merit-making activities and the “Khu Muang” old city moat famous for its water wars. The latter site also saw eight emergency tents set up and a ban on the sale of alcohol.

Meanwhile, travellers from Bangkok heading upcountry for the five-day Songkran holidays were warned to prepare for severe traffic jams on highways later last night. Earlier in the day yesterday, heavy traffic congestion were already reported at various parts of the Northeast-bound Mitraparp Highway and the North-bound Asia Highway.

By yesterday afternoon, Highway No 304 witnessed a 40km-long traffic jam between Nakhon Ratchasima’s Wang Nam Khieow district and Prachin Buri’s Na Dee district. Cars and vehicles were stuck bumper to bumper and could only move at a crawl pace.

Besides the vehicles of holidaymakers, other factors contributing to the traffic jams were some trucks plying and violating the ban on them running from April 11-17 as well as some ongoing road construction, a police source said.

Nakhon Ratchasima reported its five worst congestion spots in the afternoon:

1.  A 10km-long jam on the section between Saraburi’s Muak Lek district and Nakhon Ratchasima’s Pak Chong district;
2.  A 40km-long jam on the section (due to an ongoing motorway construction and hilly road sections) from Pak Chong’s Chok Chai Farm to Sikhiu district;
3.  A 3km-long jam at a bottle-neck area near the Pak Thong Chai intersection’s elevated bridge in Muang Nakhon Ratchasima;
4.  A 10km-long jam at the Ban Pho intersection’s elevated bridge in Muang Nakhon Ratchasima;
5.  A 7km-long jam on the section between Noen Sung district to Khong district

On the North-bound road, vehicles caused some congestion on Highway No 11 (Phitsanulok-Uttaradit) while the Indochin intersection in Phitsanulok, which had some ongoing construction, allowed more motorists to still drive using alternative routes to avoid jams.

“Research shows that sudden feelings of loneliness strike one in 10 people aged over 65 and one in two people aged over 80,” said Squadron Leader Dr Boonruang Triruangworawat, director-general of the Mental Health Department yesterday.

He said if the feelings of loneliness are prolonged, people are at risk of developing several health problems, including hypertension and sleep disorders.

Boonruang urged people to pay attention to the dangers of feeling lonely and to the elderly in their families.

A recent survey by Suan Dusit Poll found that what the elderly want most from Songkran is a family get-together. This year’s Songkran holidays in Thailand run from yesterday to next Monday.

Boonruang said if people are unable to visit their elderly family members in their home provinces during Songkran, they should at least make a phone call to let them know they are loved and missed.

‘Be understanding’

Suda Wongsawas, a senior official at the Mental Health Department, meanwhile advised people to not feel upset if family members could not visit during Songkran.

“Please try to understand the reasons why they cannot come,” she said. “Do not compare your family with others. And do not stay alone. Try joining Songkran activities in your communities,” she said.

Suda suggested that local communities organise special activities for their residents during Songkran.

She added that people could also call the Mental Health Department’s Hotline 1323 for advice if they felt unhappy.

“It’s a toll-free number and we provide services round-the-clock,” Suda said. There are more than 10.5 million elderly people in the country.

Up to 880,000 elderly people lived alone, according to a 2014 survey conducted by the National Statistical Office.

Based on such statistics, it was estimated that up to 47,000 elderly Thais would spend their final moments all alone each year.

“When they type the number of their national identification card into the app, they will be able to access useful information or request help from the state,” Older Persons Department’s director-general Thanaporn Promsuwan said yesterday.

There are now 10.5 million Thais over age 60, accounting for 16.5 per cent of the country’s total population. The greying demographic also looks set to soar to 20 per cent of the population within the next three years.

The government is therefore making active preparations for the country’s growing elderly population, she said.

“From this year onward, we intend to apply innovations to elderly lives,” Thanaporn said. “We will use technologies for effective communications”.

The Gold Application will enable senior citizens to reach relevant information without the need to travel to provincial welfare centres for older persons.

Thanaporn said the elderly, for example, should know that the government provides monthly subsidies for those over 60.

The value of subsidies ranges from Bt600 to Bt1,000, depending on their age, with subsidies increasing as they get older. Elderly people who have registered themselves as low-income earners will also get Bt100 extra every month.

For those elderly who still have the dream of running a small business of their own, the government has also provided interest-free loans of up to Bt30,000 per person. If they form a team of at least five, each team can get up to Bt100,000 in loans. Repayments can be stretched out over three years.

Thanaporn said the elderly could also seek help if they were homeless, cash-strapped or abandoned by family members.

In a bid to promote job opportunities, the government is now offering tax incentives to enterprises that hire those over 60 years.

The Health Department’s deputy director-general, Dr Atthaphon Kaewsamrit said his agency was trying to promote active ageing among Thailand’s elderly population.

“We will encourage the elderly to use their abilities in family and community development,” he said.

Atthaphon said about 8.5 million elderly Thais were still sufficiently physically fit to contribute.

He added that about two million Thais were homebound due to health conditions.

“As for this group, we will try to reduce their dependence on others and engage them more in social activities,” he said.

The festival runs from April 13-16 but in many places celebrations started on Thusday.

Thais could be seen sprinkling water on Buddha images for blessings and later taking part in huge water fights.

This year there is a campaign encouraging participants to celebrate in traditional Thai costumes.

The campaign emerged after the mega-hit TV drama “BuppeSanNivas” (“Love Destiny”) influenced Thai citizens to adopt the traditional dress worn by actors and actresses in the series.

In Hat Yai District, Songkhla province, a Chinese-Malaysian tourist took part in water splashing on Saneha Anusorn Road dressed in a Thai period costume.

Every year, tourists from neighbouring countries flock to join the festivities, especially the “Hat Yai Midnight Songkarn” which runs from midnight tonigt until Friday.

Another tourist attraction in Phuket’s Patong Beach, Bangla Road was crowded with many soaked tourists.

And in Bangkok’s Khao San Road area, one of the most popular spots for Songkran revellers, many tourists joined in a huge water fight.