Assessment of the Seven Dangerous Days Strategy and Suggestions for Road Safe Driving in the Central Region of Thailand

Abstract

This study aimed to examine behaviors of road users in the central region during 7 dangerous days (28 December 2019 - 3 January 2020), using a qualitative study process emphasizing the form of implementing the measures of 7 dangerous days, considering activities based on policy tools, including law enforcement and campaigns.  The study also aims at finding a relationship with productivity and short-term and medium-term outcomes in 3 risk behaviors. The results revealed as follows: 1) Drinking and driving-It could limit the number of offenders effectively by enforcing setting up of checkpoints directly and that affected the behavior of an individual. It could reduce the number of offenders on the road and caused the offenders tend not to be rearrested. In Chonburi Province, a law was enforced by setting up checkpoints near exits of various entertainment venues. The same is true for Suphan Buri Province where the checkpoints were set intensively and frequently and it could make people aware and afraid of being arrested to a certain extent; 2) Driving fast- police officers were not much strict about speed because there were a lot of travelling between cities, except for some areas, when a speed camera was installed, and there were service units set up for a certain distance. As Chonburi Province is a destination of traveling, so many travelers could not travel at high speed. As for Suphan Buri province, the road condition was good. So, many people drove at high speed and would decrease their speed when encountering speed limit signs and warning signs in speed limit areas, but this happened only for a short time, and; 3) Not wearing a helmet-There was awareness of intensity of setting up a checkpoint. In Chonburi Province, it was rare to see checking of helmets by polices. This is probably because it is a tourist province where a focus is made to drinking and driving. This makes the existing campaigns tend not to be effective in changing behavior of helmet wearing in the area. While in Suphan Buri, setting up the checkpoints affected the awareness of intensity. In this study, the recommendations are as follows: 1) the use of technology should be encouraged to fix the physical engineering that is at risk of frequent occurrences; and 2) there should be a social credit system or the social punishment added to be used in conjunction with fines in the event of dangerous or illegal driving.