Relatives of the victims gather at the forensic institute of the Police General Hospital in Bangkok, on Oct 2. PHOTO: AFP
Published October 2, 2024
BANGKOK – Grieving families wept as they offered prayers on Oct 2 for 23 children and their teachers killed in a horrifying Thai school bus fire, as the government vowed a crackdown on unsafe vehicles.
Police have arrested the driver of the coach, which erupted into flames after hitting a barrier on a highway in northern Bangkok on Oct 1.
The remains of the 20 children and three teachers were returned to relatives after DNA testing was needed to identify them because they were so badly burned in the inferno.
The bus was one of three carrying children from Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam school in the northern province of Uthai Thani on a field trip to a science museum in northern Bangkok.
White-and-gold coffins carrying the bodies were loaded onto ambulances at a Bangkok hospital mortuary to make the journey to Uthai Thani, accompanied by their relatives.
Parents sobbed uncontrollably as they offered prayers for their sons and daughters at the site of the tragedy, where the convoy of ambulances stopped before making its way north.
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SOURCE: www.straitstimes.com
RELATED:Why are Thailand’s roads so deadly?
A horrifying fire on a Thai school bus this week that killed at least 23 people, most of them children, underscores how the kingdom’s roads are some of the deadliest in the world.
Published October 2, 2024
AFP looks at the poor safety record, why there are so many deaths and what the Thai government is doing about it.
– How bad is it? –
Around 20,000 people are killed every year on Thailand’s roads — an average of more than 50 a day.
This means Thailand has the second-deadliest roads in Asia after Nepal, and ranks 16th in the world for traffic mortality, alongside Chad and Guinea-Bissau, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
There were 25.7 deaths due to traffic injuries per 100,000 people in 2021 in Thailand, compared with a global average of 15.
Road safety watchdog Thai RSC says that already this year there have been more than 10,000 fatalities and 600,000 injuries on the country’s roads.
More than four out of five deaths involve motorbikes, the RSC says, compared with a global average of one out of five.
Accident rates and deaths soar around major celebrations such as New Year and Songkran, the annual Thai water festival.
In 2021, the WHO said traffic-related incidents accounted for nearly a third of all deaths in Thailand. About three-quarters of those killed were male.
The economic losses caused by traffic deaths and injuries amounted to around $15.5 billion in 2022 the WHO says — equivalent to more than three percent of the country’s GDP.
– Why is it so bad? –
Speeding, drink driving, poor road design and unsafe vehicles all contribute to the problem.
Enforcement of safety rules has long been undermined by a culture of low-ranking traffic cops taking bribes to turn a blind eye to infractions such as speeding or motorcyclists not wearing helmets.
Vehicle safety checks have also been weakened by graft.
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