New organisation proposed to curb traffic accidents

BANGKOK, Jan 12 (TNA) -- Researchers proposed the government quickly set up a new organisation to solve traffic accidents as Thailand tops the world rankings on road death tolls. Pol Lt Col Krisanapong Pootrakul, head researcher for a research on road safety policies sponsored by the Thailand Research Fund, said that there were so many causes of high traffic accidents in the country. They included road standard, law enforcement and the quality of traffic management. However, a major cause was that there was not a big umbrella organisation to supervise all agencies handling road safety, he said. He proposed the government exercise Section 44 of the interim Constitution to quickly establish a National Transportation Operation Centre to handle traffic management, road standard and road safety. The new centre should gather experts who would identify accident-prone road sections nationwide, plan the effective enforcement of traffic rules and push for a traffic court, he said. (TNA)