Australian Driver Arrested After Hitting Phuket Checkpoint

4 hours ago, Gandtee said:

Petratos Costa? A good old Ozzy name. Bubble and squeak extraction?😆

There were a hell of a lot in Darwin during my two years of working there.

How dare he leave the scene.

Did he think his name was "Boss" ?

This little episode is gonna be very kostly for Mr.kosta i'm sure. If you wanna run into something drunk do not run into a police checkpoint because they don't like it much and won't see the funny side of it.

18 hours ago, rocketboy2 said:

Hope the officer recovers quickly

Disgraceful behavior leaving the scene of an acct

2 hours ago, Frankie baby said:

About 15 years back I was done for being over the alcohol limit at the same checkpoint. It costs 15000 Bht. to walk away. Taking inflation into consideration, I can't blame him for running the check?

IF he was trying to dodge a check due to drink, his driving was really impaired being unable to avoid that collision. If you don’t drink, or smoke drugs and drive you don’t have to worry about being stopped.

20 hours ago, Jone500 said:

Well, it seems the convict has been locked up again.

In Oz these days you are very famous and envied if you can trace your origins back to original transported convicts 😝✨️

His name sounds Greek so probably from an immigrant family, not convict stock.

But a bit of a stupid thing to do.

Probably pi**ed or he just thinks roadside money collection "roadblocks" are a scam.

Anyone causing a incident and fleeing the scene should suffer the consequences of his actions

Jail and deported don't need people like this on the Thai road

Okay, he should not have driven off. But the checkpoints are always hard to spot. Hardly no lights around them or some warning signs just a bit up the road.

1 hour ago, Richardsamui said:

Okay, he should not have driven off. But the checkpoints are always hard to spot. Hardly no lights around them or some warning signs just a bit up the road.

You have seen the photo of the check point with lots of light shining on the road and two other cops walking around? If he couldn’t see that he should not be driving.

9 hours ago, Old Croc said:

From his name it's much more likely he was an immigrant from Greece rather than a deported English convict.

All Ausies are immigrants I learned on school😂

3 hours ago, Richardsamui said:

Okay, he should not have driven off. But the checkpoints are always hard to spot. Hardly no lights around them or some warning signs just a bit up the road.

Do you really see that check point as dark in the photos ?

9 hours ago, newbee2022 said:

Ban him life time to enter Thailand.

Good example for riffraff and low class tourist

Oh come on - you missed an opportunity to suggest he goes to the Bangkok Hilton...

Also missed a chance to mention 'this what happens with 30 days Visas'... and missed a chance to blame Marijuana !!

Really - you could have struck the trifecta of predictable stereotypical responses if you'd really applied yourself !!!

8 hours ago, Rams86 said:

Being an Aussie myself I say that this loser is of Greek origin.

If he were called Bruce Al-Ahmedi-Papadopoulos - the onomastics enthusiasts would get their knickers in a right twist...

Rule #1. Always avoid crashing into a checkpoint and injuring the police. They take offense to that kind of brain fart.

On 6/22/2026 at 4:59 PM, Georgealbert said:

From the photos, no one is telling him to stop, he should not stop, and the officer on the left is walking out into the road while the officer on the right is hidden.

He doesn't need to stop, is avoiding a person clearly walking out into the road and into his path, and a hidden figure on the right hits his car while he avoids the person walking into his path.

The officers are to blame.

18 hours ago, denishuahin said:

Petratos Kosta, his nickname is Bruce.
Some of the checkpoints are in stupid places, many years ago on the 24 one night, I came around a bend, and there was a cop standing in the middle of the with a little Red light in his hand. I had to swerve to miss him,

But I just carried on, as you know if I had hit him, it would have been my fault.

Yes, in my early days here I was surprised by silly little barriers set up just around a bend that caught me unawares..... had to get used to where they usually were. No real advance warning. Surprised more don;t get hit like they do on the also dangerous pedestrian crossings!

9 hours ago, Packer said:

From the photos, no one is telling him to stop, he should not stop, and the officer on the left is walking out into the road while the officer on the right is hidden.

He doesn't need to stop, is avoiding a person clearly walking out into the road and into his path, and a hidden figure on the right hits his car while he avoids the person walking into his path.

The officers are to blame.

I''m not sure what the exact law is here but in most countries, the driver of a car is responsible. If you hit a parked car, bash into a building, or hit a pedestrian it is generally the driver's fault. I understand the point you're making about extenuating circumstances but at the end of the day, the driver is responsible. And leaving the scene of the accident? Involving a policeman? That's just the cherry on top.

40 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

Or in with him. Prison exists for a purpose.

Too expensive. Off with him. No return

23 hours ago, denishuahin said:

Petratos Kosta, his nickname is Bruce.
Some of the checkpoints are in stupid places, many years ago on the 24 one night, I came around a bend, and there was a cop standing in the middle of the with a little Red light in his hand. I had to swerve to miss him,

But I just carried on, as you know if I had hit him, it would have been my fault.

Drive more carefully, not speeding

14 hours ago, Packer said:

From the photos, no one is telling him to stop, he should not stop, and the officer on the left is walking out into the road while the officer on the right is hidden.

He doesn't need to stop, is avoiding a person clearly walking out into the road and into his path, and a hidden figure on the right hits his car while he avoids the person walking into his path.

The officers are to blame.

I’d agree it’s a very poor setup. Some police checkpoints are positioned in inherently dangerous locations, just beyond blind bends, over the crest of a hill, or in ways that suddenly funnel three lanes into one. In those circumstances, they’re almost inviting an accident.

In this case, you could argue the officer assumed a degree of risk by placing himself in harm’s way. Ultimately, however, there is no reasonable excuse for driving into a stationary object in broad daylight.

What takes this from an accident to something far worse is what happened next. The collision itself may have been negligence; fleeing the scene is a conscious decision.

21 hours ago, Max Brok said:

All Ausies are immigrants I learned on school😂

Dunno what school you went "on" but I think the Aborigines would disagree.

On 6/23/2026 at 4:42 PM, BexMan said:

IF he was trying to dodge a check due to drink, his driving was really impaired being unable to avoid that collision. If you don’t drink, or smoke drugs and drive you don’t have to worry about being stopped.

He should have done what I used to do in the food old days when it was normal to drive home from the pub drunk.If you wanted to focus on something you just shut one eye and things became much clearer.

On 6/23/2026 at 8:35 PM, Max Brok said:

All Ausies are immigrants I learned on school😂

Yes that includes all aboriginals .

On 6/23/2026 at 10:36 AM, Iron Tongue said:

I met an Australian originally from Greece. He told me that he immigrated in the 1970s when the Aussie Govt. used to pay bounties to Greeks willing to immigrate. Australia must've been desperate to get "white" European immigrants back then.

A large number of Greek and Italians were recruited for migration to Australia in the 50s when workers were required for the massive Snowy Mountains Hydro scheme. This guy could be a descendent of one of those migrants. Very Australian.

Australia is one of the most multinational countries on the planet. We could have names originating from anywhere. It's silly to debate on that basis.

Incidentally, in the OP his name was spelt as Kosta, not Costa.