Traffic accidents killed 38 people over Khmer New Year, with a further 306 injured, officials said yesterday.

National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith said that between Monday and Wednesday, 148 traffic accidents were recorded across the country.

“Eighty per cent of the victims did not wear helmets,” he said, adding that failure to abide by traffic rules was the main cause of accidents.

Chantharith said that there were 11 fewer traffic fatalities this Khmer New Year than in the previous one, while there were 32 more accidents.

“We noticed that many traffic accidents happened in Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhnang, Kampot, Takeo and Battambang provinces,” while few occurred on the busy National Road 6 that leads to Siem Reap, he said.

Preap Chanvibol, director of the land transport department at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said young people are most at risk of accidents.

“The people who are easily hurt by accidents are motorbike drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and most of them are youths,” he said.

Seurn Sareurn, deputy director of land traffic in the municipality of Phnom Penh, said speed and drink driving are his main causes for concern.

“Many traffic accidents have happened on National roads 1 and 5 and on Phnom Penh’s Russian Boulevard.”

Fatalities on Cambodia’s roadways increased 3.5 per cent in the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2013, while road accidents as a whole rose nearly 10 per cent.