BANGKOK, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Drunk driving offenders are facing a 15-day detention or electronic monitoring since Friday, the Songkran Festival in Thailand, authorities said.
The probation department in conjunction with the courts of justice are introducing electronic tagging for drivers found convicted to have between 200 and 250 mg/100ml of alcohol in their blood during Songkran, known as water splashing festival that runs from April 13 to 15.
Those who break the law will have to wear the EM (electronic monitoring) devices and may not be permitted to leave their home patch at night.
Office of the Judiciary said the government has prepared 5,000 electronic monitoring devices for drunk driving offenders, aiming to prevent them from going out between 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. during the long holidays.
Those with an alcohol level at the time of arrest above 251mg/100ml will be locked up for 15 days at the Pathum Thani Central Detention, without bail, Don Muang Court head judge Prasert Lopradit said.
The Thai authorities are making a serious effort at reducing the number of road traffic accidents, drinking and driving have been pinpointed as the single largest causes of needless fatalities and injuries on Thailand's highways. This is highlighted annually when the road traffic accident fatalities toll rises dramatically during the Thai Songkran Festival.
In the first two days of the Songkran travel week, 1,026 road accidents killed 99 people and injured 1,085, with about 1,500 motorbikes and cars impounded from drunk drivers.
More than 1,700 drunk drivers in Thailand were sent to work in morgues under a plan to cut the country's dismal road safety record in 2016.