The day after the cabinet approved a five-day holiday for Songkran, authorities announced another safe-driving campaign. This did not attract the same attention as the decision on the actual holiday dates, April 12 until April 16. The reason is that setting the dates was news. "Crackdowns" on disastrous Songkran driving have become a biannual ritual.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon to take charge of the campaign. He has designated the Ministry of Interior, under Gen Anupong Paojinda, as its organiser. Gen Prawit's spokesman, Maj Gen Kongcheep Tantravanich, says Gen Anupong is now assessing measures that will reduce road accidents and fatalities during Songkran.
The organisation is complicated and aims exceedingly short-sighted, as usual. The goal is to reduce the holiday toll from 442 -- the number of highway deaths during last Songkran's "seven dangerous days". That horrendous toll, by the way, was up by 21% over the previous Songkran period. To complete the senseless statistics of the past year, the seven dangerous days of the recent New Year's holiday period saw 478 people killed on the roads.
