PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Administration Organisation's chief executive, Paiboon Upatising, and former Phuket City Police Superintendent Colonel Wanchai Eakpornpit have each won major national awards for improvements to safety on Phuket roads.
Colonel Wanchai, now Deputy Police Commander in the province of Ranong, north of Phuket, collected his Prime Minister's Road Safety Award for 2011 in Bangkok on Friday.
The award is the most significant honor so far for the Phuketwan Phuket Person of the Year 2010, whose strategy converted the ''100% Helmet'' campaign from a good idea to reality on Phuket.
Understanding that sudden enforcement of a long unenforced law on helmets would cause resentment and an anti-police reaction, Colonel Wanchai mapped out a campaign to win support and entrench safety awareness in all motorcycle riders before enforcement.
He engaged community leaders and put their images on safety billboards, he gave away hundreds of helmets to motorcycle taxi riders, he signed MoUs with local schools that promised students would lose marks for not wearing helmets, and he helped create a Phuket road safety movie that all those pulled over for not wearing helmets were obliged to watch.
The successful Phuket City campaign was adopted all over the island by Phuket Police Commander Major General Pekad Tantipong.
The campaign continues, and its adoption nationally means that the numbers of people wearing helmets as both riders and pillion passengers continues to grow.
The award to Khun Upatising was an acknowledgement of the gradual decline in Phuket road deaths from more than 200 a year to 137 in 2010. The Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation spends more than 20 million baht a year on road safety signage and awareness.
Colonel Wanchai is setting out his strategy in a book that should help to save more lives.
Colonel Wanchai, now Deputy Police Commander in the province of Ranong, north of Phuket, collected his Prime Minister's Road Safety Award for 2011 in Bangkok on Friday.
The award is the most significant honor so far for the Phuketwan Phuket Person of the Year 2010, whose strategy converted the ''100% Helmet'' campaign from a good idea to reality on Phuket.
Understanding that sudden enforcement of a long unenforced law on helmets would cause resentment and an anti-police reaction, Colonel Wanchai mapped out a campaign to win support and entrench safety awareness in all motorcycle riders before enforcement.
He engaged community leaders and put their images on safety billboards, he gave away hundreds of helmets to motorcycle taxi riders, he signed MoUs with local schools that promised students would lose marks for not wearing helmets, and he helped create a Phuket road safety movie that all those pulled over for not wearing helmets were obliged to watch.
The successful Phuket City campaign was adopted all over the island by Phuket Police Commander Major General Pekad Tantipong.
The campaign continues, and its adoption nationally means that the numbers of people wearing helmets as both riders and pillion passengers continues to grow.
The award to Khun Upatising was an acknowledgement of the gradual decline in Phuket road deaths from more than 200 a year to 137 in 2010. The Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation spends more than 20 million baht a year on road safety signage and awareness.
Colonel Wanchai is setting out his strategy in a book that should help to save more lives.
A well-deserved win. Phuket road safety is not only the envy of Thailand but the whole of South-East Asia. Long may they continue.
Posted by Ken on August 29, 2011 12:41