Songkran Holiday Ends: Congested Highways, Increased Traffic, and Road Accidents as Revellers Head Back to Bangkok
Songkran, the Thai New Year holiday, is coming to an end.
Thousands of people are returning to Bangkok and Eastern Economic Corridor provinces today for work on Wednesday.
The Friendship Highway, the main route connecting Bangkok with north-eastern provinces, is congested with private cars and public transport vehicles.
Traffic is moving slowly, and police anticipate increased traffic later today and into the night.
A special lane will be opened on the in-bound Phahonyothin Road to help ease the congestion.
The Mor Chit 2 bus terminal is experiencing high passenger traffic from northern and north-eastern provinces, with numbers expected to continue until nighttime.
The Bangkok Mass Transit Company has arranged eight public buses to provide shuttle services to the Mor Chit BTS train station from 4am to 7am due to insufficient taxis.
Meanwhile, the death toll from road accidents over the past five days has risen to 206, with 1,593 injuries reported.
Yesterday, there were 301 road accidents resulting in 39 fatalities and 314 injuries.
Speeding caused 43.19% of these accidents.
Drunk driving and cutting in were also significant causes.
In the past five days, 3,973 drunk driving cases were recorded, a 32.3% decrease from the previous year.
Bangkok had the most drunk driving cases (446), followed by Nonthaburi (238) and Samut Prakan (214).