PARIS - The Thai government has been urged to work tirelessly to launch a new anti-drunk driving and road safety campaign for the upcoming Songkran festival next month in a bid to reduce fatalities.
Speaking at a press briefing for the Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit in Paris this week, Kelly Larson, Injury Prevention Lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies, said her organisation worked with Thailand on road safety from 2015 to 2019.
“We worked with the government to develop a campaign to help people understand the risks of drinking and driving or speeding during this festival,” she said.
The Partnership for Healthy Cities is a global network of 74 cities committed to saving lives by preventing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries.
Bloomberg Philanthropies supports the initiative in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Vital Strategies. The initiative enables cities worldwide to adopt high-impact policies or pragmatic interventions to reduce NCDs and injuries in their communities.
Ms Larson said she wanted to see the Thai government launch more anti-drunk driving campaigns to promote road safety and raise awareness of safe driving practices, which would help reduce the number of deaths and injuries.
Larson: Has worked on this for 5 years
She said that when she was in Thailand, she also worked with the Royal Thai Police to enforce road safety policies and called on the police to strictly enforce road laws for the upcoming festival.
Ms Larson said the media could also play a key role in making the government’s road safety campaign more successful.
“It is a big commitment for the government to do things that reduce road traffic fatalities during this Songkran festival,” she said.
“I know the government has strong policies, but it does take a steady drumbeat of advocacy to make sure that those policies are being enforced.”
Ms Larson directs Bloomberg Philanthropies’ road safety programme, which has invested $500 million since 2007 to improve road safety globally.
Ariella Rojhani, director of the Partnership for Healthy Cities at Vital Strategies, said strong data must back road safety campaigns.
Through accurate data on the number of deaths and injuries, she said the government and the police can note when there is an increase and then intervene effectively.
“We’ve done and supported similar work in Argentina, actually around New Year,” Ms Rojhani said.
Rojhani: Campaigning needs strong data
“Knowing that drunk driving is a huge problem around New Year, we’re supporting (Buenos Aires) in mobilising additional enforcement at that time, and as Ms Larson said, it can’t be the media alone, and it can’t just be an enforcement issue.
“It’s a two-part thing that has to happen together in intergovernmental collaborations,” Ms Rojhani said, adding she hoped there will be less fatalities on Thailand’s roads for this year’s Songkran festival.
She said her organisation partners with governments, change makers, and leading researchers to move policy and people towards sustainable progress in global health.
The Songkran festival in Thailand is typically held between April 13 and 15, but it gets drawn out as people in Bangkok and other provinces return home to celebrate with their families.
Every year, the government records accident statistics during the so-called “seven dangerous days” for festival holiday travelling.
Despite a high-profile government road safety campaign, there were 287 road fatalities and 2,060 injuries during last year’s “seven dangerous days”.
The casualties resulted from 2,044 traffic accidents between April 11 and 17.
During the “seven dangerous days”, the northernmost province of Chiang Rai recorded the highest number of accidents, at 82, with 17 related deaths. Seven out of 77 provinces did not record any road fatalities.
The northern province of Phrae registered the highest number of injuries at 80.
The Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit is taking place until March 21 at InterContinental Paris-Le Grand, an IHG Hotel. (Photo: Anucha Charoenpo)