People not allowed to splash water down from pickup trucks during Songkran

BANGKOK, 29 March 2013 (NNT) – The Ministry of Interior aims to ban the practice of carrying water containers on pickup trucks and splashing water down from the trucks, for the upcoming Songkran water festival.

 File photo. Source: Wikipedia.org

An Interior Ministry meeting to discuss reducing road accidents and casualties during Songkran holiday has set April 11-17 as days when tight control on the road will be implemented.

Aiming to increase road safety during the period of water play, the meeting agreed to switch from the previous model of using a central command center that issued guidelines to provincial officials to a model that allows provincial administrators to adjust their methods to best fit their localities.

Under the new model, provincial governors must lay down measures and guidelines for districts, municipalities and other local administrative bodies to follow and implement.

Every province must establish zoning for Songkran water play.

People on pickup trucks will be banned from splashing water on public roads, in order to reduce the risk of accident occurring.

 
-- NNT 2013-03-29

Don Muang airport to operate in full again to ease crowding at Suvarnabhumi

BANGKOK, 28 March 2013 (NNT) - The Airport of Thailand public company has announced that it will allow all airlines to use Don Muang international airport again. Don Mueang. File photo, source: Wikipedia org

The decision was made by the airport company's board of directors, and will have to be approved by the Cabinet, as 70 per cent of the company's shares are still owned by the government.

The company has revealed that airlines in the One World group, led by Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific airway, has expressed interest in using Don Muang airport.

The airlines group also suggested that Don Muang airport be expanded to allow for giant Airbus A380 aircrafts to land and take off from there.

Don Muang airport is currently operating as an airport for budget airlines. The decision will turn it into a full-service airport.

Bangkok's main international airport, Suvarnabhumi, has the capacity of 45 million passengers per year. Now it is handling over 51 million passengers per year.

The Airport of Thailand expects Don Muang airport to ease the crowding problem at Suvarnabhumi while the country's number one airport is being expanded to allow it to handle 60 million passengers by 2017.
 

Authorities in Thailand WILL BE RESTRICTING alcohol sales during Songkran

According to "Coconuts Bangkok" the decision has been made to set up alcohol free zones...parts of Bangkok, Pattaya, and Phuket to be affected.

Included in these dry spots (an ironic designation during Songkran) will be Bangkok’s Khao San, Rama Nine and Silom roads.
Parts of Pattaya and Phuket will be subjected to the dry spell as well.

Deputy national police chief Ruangsak Jaritek said on Monday that revelers will be allowed to enter these areas, but only if they park their vehicles outside of the safe zones’ boundaries. Anyone caught driving or riding in a car while under the influence of alcohol will be subject to six months’ imprisonment or a THB30,000 fine.

These strict measures have been undertaken in an effort to increase road safety during the “seven dangerous days” of the Songkran holiday.

Police will set up roughly 12,000 security checkpoints throughout Thailand in order to help curtail drunk driving and push this year’s count of road-related fatalities downwards.

The Bangkok Post reports that last year, police countermeasures reduced traffic accidents during Songkran by 5%, though an accident reduction target has not been set for this year.

Thailand dry for Songkran??

Found this on Thai Visa and thought i would share!
 


Songkran alcohol ban mulled in a move to reduce deaths during holiday

BANGKOK: -- The Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee will on Monday consider whether to issue a ban on the sale of alcohol during the Songkran holiday period, Songkran Pakchokdee, director of the Anti-Alcohol Organisations Network, told The Nation.

A ban, aimed at reducing deaths from road accidents over the period, will be proposed by Dr Saman Futrakul, director of the Disease Control Department's Office of Alcoholic Beverage and Tobacco Consumption Control Committee.



The committee, chaired by Public Health Minister Pradit Sinthawanarong, is expected to announce a decision on Monday. If the proposed ban is passed, it will be submitted for final approval to the National Alcohol Beverage Policy Committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, on March 28, in time for next month's water festival.

Saman's earlier proposal for a year-round ban on the sale of alcohol on pavements, roadside areas and public walkways was shelved by Plodprasob's committee last December.

Thailand currently bans alcohol sales on four major religious holidays: Makha Bucha Day, Visakha Bucha Day, Asarnha Bucha Day and Buddhist Lent Day.

In related news, the Thailand Accident Research Centre (TARC) recently conducted a study into accidents on Thai roads over the past 20 years.

Kunnawee Kanitpong, who headed the research, said that statistics for 1993-2011 road accidents and fatalities gathered by two agencies - the National Police Office and the Public Health Ministry - varied significantly (see graphic).

Prommin Kantiya, director of the Accident Prevention Network, said Thailand lacked a single systematic process to gather such information.

He said police statistics only covered cases in which victims had died on the same day as their accidents, while the Public Health Ministry collects follow-up information for another 30 days and therefore records a much higher number of road-accident fatalities.

However, the number of road deaths recorded by the Health Ministry is still lower than that gathered by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Last month the WHO reported that up to 26,000 people are killed in road accidents every year in Thailand, which places the country as sixth-highest in the world for road fatalities.

The TARC research indicates that integration of relevant agencies is necessary to gain a true reflection of trends in road use and the toll that road accidents take, said Kunnawee.

The research study, the fruit of almost a year's work, will be forwarded to the Road Safety Centre and published in a book this year.


-- The Nation 2013-03-23

Dengue Fever expected to be on the rise this year in Thailand

Health authorities on alert for mosquito attack

News source: The Nation

BANGKOK: -- A nationwide public health campaign against mosquito-borne dengue fever will be launched to forestall a major epidemic forecast at up to 150,000 cases this year - four times last year's total.

The Cabinet meeting tomorrow would be asked to mobilise support from all authorities and the public, Public Health Minister Pradit Sinthawanarong said yesterday.

The campaign will advise families nationwide to stay indoors in rooms with screened windows and sealed door frames all the time, not just when sleeping in mosquito nets.

The application of herbal liquid repellent would be encouraged in place of burning mosquito coils, whose smoke is harmful, especially to children and sick people.

The campaign, if started now, will eliminate mosquitoes before May when the seasonal spread of the viral disease is at its peak.

It is expected to cut dengue treatments by half, he added.

"There could be 120-200 deaths arising from all cases this year,"

In the first two months of this year, 12 patients died out of 9,824 dengue cases. New cases are running at an average of more than 1,200 a week. The ministry estimates that dengue cases could reach 120,000-150,000 this year, of which 15,000 would likely need hospital treatment.

The cooperation and assistance of all ministries involved were needed as the Public Health Ministry's activities alone could eliminate only 10 per cent of the mosquito population, whose larvae hatch in pockets of rainwater or still water at the household level or in nature.