Riding a taxi motosai and riding a Chaang are completely different beasts, pun intended. Both myself and the 'win' are making a conscious decision to engage in a potentially perilous activity. That, and I'm not poking the poor beast with metal spikes instead of a gentler method that I've read about.
Not sure why you bring BritTim"s unfortunate incident up here, he was not a passenger on a mototaxi in Pattaya.