{"id":2840,"date":"2016-04-18T16:12:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T08:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/2016\/04\/18\/thailands-new-year-festivities-log-a-record-high-deaths-on-the-road\/"},"modified":"2016-04-18T16:12:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T08:12:26","slug":"thailands-new-year-festivities-log-a-record-high-deaths-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/2016\/04\/18\/thailands-new-year-festivities-log-a-record-high-deaths-on-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand's New Year festivities log a record high deaths on the road"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ap_600815181526\"<\/p>\n

\"Feed-tw\"<\/a>\"Feed-fb\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

Thailand suffered a record high of 397 deaths in the first six days of its New Year’s festival of Songkran, the Thai transport minister, Arkhom Termpittayapaisit, said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The death toll represents a 30% rise over last year’s count across the weeklong festival, with Sunday still unaccounted for during the minister’s press conference<\/a>. A total of 3,104 traffic collisions had occurred, resulting in 3,271 people seriously injured.<\/p>\n

\n

SEE ALSO: Thailand literally wants to send drunk drivers to the morgue<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>

\n

Most collisions involved motorcycles.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>

\n

Image: mark baker\/AP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Most of the deaths were caused by speeding and drink driving, and the vast majority of accidents involved motorcycles, at over 80%, the ministry said. Thailand has one of the highest motorcycle ownership rates in the world, at 87% of households<\/a>, according to Pew Research Center figures. Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

More about Festivals<\/a>, Road Accidents<\/a>, Songkran<\/a>, Thailand<\/a>, and World<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thailand suffered a record high of 397 deaths in the first six days of its New Year’s festival of Songkran, the Thai transport minister, Arkhom Termpittayapaisit, said on Sunday. The death toll represents a 30% rise over last year’s count … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1348,2069,2070,2071,1112],"class_list":["post-2840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other","tag-festivals","tag-road-accidents","tag-songkran","tag-thailand","tag-world"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/murtadha\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}