PHUKET: Officials on Phuket were today celebrating having no deaths recorded in the Seven Days of Danger road safety campaign that ended at midnight.
But the toll could yet be revised to one death - and no glory - if and when the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation receives proof that an elderly man's death was due to a motorcycle crash.
Jingiang Jamreunnam, 75, died in Vachria Phuket Hospital in Phuket City early on Wednesday after being admitted as the victim of a motorcycle crash on Tuesday.
''We can't say his death was directly related to the motorcycle crash until we are officially informed it is so,'' the Director of the DDPM, Sant Jantawong, said today.
The DDPM compiles the lists throughout Thailand. Lack of confirmation may seem unusual but a similar event occurred last year.
A Danish tourist, said to have been fatally injured in a motorcycle crash during a dramatic tsunami evacuation from Patong, was not counted as a 'Seven Days' road toll victim.
The reason? His body was not discovered in his Patong hotel room until the second evacuation, five days later.
So for now, Phuket has a death-free Seven Days, a great improvement on last year when there were three deaths - four if the Danish man counts - and the year before, when there were seven.
There were 26 crashes on Phuket this year, with 27 people injured - 26 if Khun Jingjiang is eventually moved to the deaths column. Of those, 15 were Phuket people, nine were from other provinces and three were foreigners.
A total of 321 people were killed and 3040 others injured in 2828 road crashes nationwide. Drunk driving and speeding were the main causes.
Motorcycles and pickups were involved in the largest number of crashes.
One small problem for Phuket road safety is that official figures for road toll deaths and drownings for the whole calendar year of 2012 have yet to be revealed.
Apart from the New Year safety campaigns, official monthly updates ceased to be released in April last year.
New Year may be safer, but what about the other 51 weeks of the year? Sorry, we are not able to tell you.
But the toll could yet be revised to one death - and no glory - if and when the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation receives proof that an elderly man's death was due to a motorcycle crash.
Jingiang Jamreunnam, 75, died in Vachria Phuket Hospital in Phuket City early on Wednesday after being admitted as the victim of a motorcycle crash on Tuesday.
''We can't say his death was directly related to the motorcycle crash until we are officially informed it is so,'' the Director of the DDPM, Sant Jantawong, said today.
The DDPM compiles the lists throughout Thailand. Lack of confirmation may seem unusual but a similar event occurred last year.
A Danish tourist, said to have been fatally injured in a motorcycle crash during a dramatic tsunami evacuation from Patong, was not counted as a 'Seven Days' road toll victim.
The reason? His body was not discovered in his Patong hotel room until the second evacuation, five days later.
So for now, Phuket has a death-free Seven Days, a great improvement on last year when there were three deaths - four if the Danish man counts - and the year before, when there were seven.
There were 26 crashes on Phuket this year, with 27 people injured - 26 if Khun Jingjiang is eventually moved to the deaths column. Of those, 15 were Phuket people, nine were from other provinces and three were foreigners.
A total of 321 people were killed and 3040 others injured in 2828 road crashes nationwide. Drunk driving and speeding were the main causes.
Motorcycles and pickups were involved in the largest number of crashes.
One small problem for Phuket road safety is that official figures for road toll deaths and drownings for the whole calendar year of 2012 have yet to be revealed.
Apart from the New Year safety campaigns, official monthly updates ceased to be released in April last year.
New Year may be safer, but what about the other 51 weeks of the year? Sorry, we are not able to tell you.
So if I understand this story right, they prefer to fix the figures, to show that no one died on Phuket, where we know this not to be true.
Posted by Tbs on April 19, 2013 11:13
Editor Comment:
There's nothing in the article about figures being ''fixed.'' Officials have not been formally notified whether or not the death of the elderly gentleman was caused by the motorcycle crash.