Booze-free 'safety areas' set for Songkran

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Booze-free 'safety areas' set for Songkran
By The Nation
2011-04-08

"Safety areas" for Songkran water fights and celebrations are to be designated at 60 locations in 44 provinces this year, a network of antialcohol and accident prevention groups said yesterday.

The zones are aimed at tackling drunk driving and reducing road accident rates and crime during the festival from April 13 - 17 this year.

Sale and consumption of liquor will be prohibited in the areas, with Sonkgran revellers encouraged to gather and celebrate traditional events, said Supreeda Adulyanont, a senior Thai Health Promotion Foundation official.

The idea, which will be rolled out at 16 tourist attractions with names beginning with Khao, in imitation of Bangkok's Khao San Road, is also aimed at curbing sexual assaults on women by wayward celebrants while reducing accidents and deaths associated with drinking, she added.

To discourage drunken celebrations, a group of 2,000 volunteers will be stationed at the 60 locations to take pictures of drunk people before posting them on online social media services, for police to monitor and make arrests in case they commit crimes.

Citing a survey, she said there were more than 2.4 times as many injuries during the Songkran holiday break compared to regular times, while crimes, accidents and deaths, including drowning, were 6.58 times higher.

Young people drink 1.8 times as heavily during Songkran and tend to drink regularly afterwards, she said.

There have been an average of 1,948 deaths per year during Songkran in the past four years and another 1,423 people made disabled by road accidents caused by drunk driving.

A similar survey found that 58 per cent of people killed in road accidents last year had been drinking, with a quarter of them being under 20.

The director of the Accident Prevention Network, Prommin Kantiya, said police manning road checkpoints during the Songkran break had been asked to interview drunk motorists who are pulled over or arrested to find out where they bought their liquor.