Songkran revellers continue returning to Bangkok

BANGKOK, April 17 (TNA) - Many organizations in Thailand resumed operations today, causing traffic congestion as a large number of people were returning to Bangkok from their Songkran, or traditional Thai New Year, vacation in provincial areas. The traffic congestion has continued at a bus terminal in Phitsanulok province, for instance, which is a transport center of the Lower Thai North, as travelers who were stranded Monday showed up Tuesday morning to buy bus tickets; while bus drivers were carefully checked for the sake of passengers’ safety. At the Chiang Mai Railway Station in the Upper Thai North, crowds of travelers also gathered Tuesday morning to wait for free trains which arrived over an hour late and were packed right at their departure point in Chiang Mai; while local security authorities carefully watched out for illicit goods among the passengers. The traffic congestion happened on a section of over one kilometer long on Bangkok-bound lanes of the Mitraparp Highway Tuesday morning in Thailand's northeastern Khon Kaen province, where a provincial bus terminal was full of travelers and additional bus trips were, thus, deployed. The main Mo Chit bus terminal in Bangkok has also crowded and there have apparently been not enough taxis to pick up travelers inside the terminal, prompting many taxi drivers to have waited for passengers outside the bus terminal and some of them have taken advantage by demanding overcharged fares; while police have used sniffer dogs to detect narcotics inside the bus terminal. According to the Ministry of Interior's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, there were 2,872 road accidents in which 282 people were killed and 3,059 people were injured during this year's Songkran travel period from April 11 to 16. The official statistics showed that on April 16 alone, there were 291 road accidents in which 29 people were killed and 308 people were injured. The most common cause of road accidents was drunk driving. The official statistics also showed that, from April 11 to 16, there were road accidents in all provinces, with the highest death toll of 11 during the six-day period reported in the central Saraburi and the southern Surat Thani provinces each; while the highest injuries during the period was recorded in Chiang Rai province in the Thai North. (TNA)