SA KAEO: Heavy holiday traffic has created tailbacks stretching up to 25 kilometres along Highway 348 in Ta Phraya district of this eastern province.
The route is a popular one used by drivers from Eastern Seaboard provinces to reach their homes in the Northeast. Traffic jams formed on Saturday morning near Chong Tako mountain as motorists from Rayong, Chanthaburi, Trat and Chon Buri converged on the area.
Many drivers said they had set off on their journeys at 7pm on Friday and had been stuck in the traffic for more than 10 hours. It might take at least 20 hours for them to reach their homes in the Northeast, they said.
The traffic snarl stretched for about 25km from the Kokhan intersection in Ta Phraya district to Chong Tako. With no facilities in the immediate area, many people had to leave their cars to urinate in the forest by the roadside.
Highway police from Sa Kaeo and Buri Ram province were on the scene in an attempt to keep traffic moving, said Pol Lt Sawong Thongbainoi, deputy suppression chief at the Highway Police Sub-division 3.
Traffic was also snarled from Chong Tako in Sa Kaeo to the Khok Lan intersection in Non Dindaeng district of Buri Ram.
Pol Col Pitsanu Pengduan, chief of the Thapthai police station in Ta Phraya district, said traffic at Chong Khao Takieo, a security road along the Thai-Cambodian border, in tambon Thapthai, was heavy but was still flowing.
