VIENTIANE, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Over 400 people were killed in road accidents across the country in the first four months of this year, with most crashes attributed to drunk driving.
Local daily Vientiane Times on Monday quoted Major General Somkeo Silavong's report at the ongoing fifth ordinary session of the National Assembly's eighth Legislature, when responding to a question raised by members of the parliament last Friday.
In the first four months of this year, there were 2,341 road accidents around the country, killing 429 people, injuring 3,816 people and damaging 4,067 vehicles, Major General Somkeo said.
Most of the accidents occurred in the cities of Vientiane, Champassak and Savannakhet. Many accidents occurred on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between 5 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. with most involving motorbikes.
Road accidents are increasing as the number of vehicles rises. Currently, there are 1,979,007 vehicles in Laos including 1,513,281 motorbikes, but road development has not kept pace with the growing number of vehicles.
Meanwhile, statistics showed that 26.6 percent of traffic violations involved drunk driving, with 19.6 percent being the result of speeding.
Last year, there were 5,868 road accidents in Laos with 1,053 fatalities, 2,385 people sustaining injuries and 3,129 vehicles damaged. This was an average of 3.9 people killed each day. However, the number of fatalities fell by 33 compared to 2016.
"To solve this issue we will concentrate on implementing and advertising Prime Minister's Decree No. 188, which outlines fines and measures against traffic transgressors, and an awareness campaign for road users to prevent accidents on national roads," Major General Somkeo said.
