Thai road safety: Green light given for police to spend half a billion baht on radar guns

[RichardinHuaHin]

I  wonder how they plan to stop someone that is speeding.   Not many police cars and motorcycles they have won't catch them.    Might be more incidents like the ferarri saga.

[4MyEgo]

5 minutes ago, XJ650 said:

So who is going to use these fantastic things? I never see any police on or on the side of the road.

 

Put a couple of police at a traffic light and they can take at least 100 people going through red light within 10 minutes..

 

So far after 15 years I haven't seen one person get caught crossing red light. 

 

 

I have, got it in the mail, photos and all, 800 baht fine, Mrs bargained with them and paid 400 baht...I s..t you not 555

Edited October 20, 2017 by 4MyEgo

[4MyEgo]

6 minutes ago, RichardinHuaHin said:

I  wonder how they plan to stop someone that is speeding.   Not many police cars and motorcycles they have won't catch them.    Might be more incidents like the ferarri saga.

It will be something to watch and see, however if their radar's are sophisticated enough, the will provide a photo, date and time stamp, and then the cops can post the fine to them, a bit like a red light camera, which no doubt won;t be long before they will be introduced, after following the success of the radar revenue's.

 

Might be time to invest in a radar detector and change number plates, i.e. get some off a car in a wrecking yard, and if you are ever questioned, i.e. why you have wrong number plates, shrug shoulders, OMBuddah someone must have steal them 555

Edited October 20, 2017 by 4MyEgo

[hawker9000]

Radar guns?   Really??   LOL.  Oh this'll be good.   They'll get confused with portable microwaves....

 

 

 

[Briggsy]

36 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Is Thailand slowly turning into a nanny-state?

No.

 

What is happening is that with the emergence of a burgeoning middle class in Thailand and corruption just as prevalent as it was in Sarit's day, is that Thais will no longer do the foreigner's bidding for $5 a day but are much more likely to be thinking up new ways of having the baht out of your wallet. (The money has to come from somewhere.)

 

But don't worry, you'll still be able to pay off the cops on the spot for 200 Baht, as long as you grin sufficiently long and hard.

 

 

[dotpoom]

6 hours ago, AGareth2 said:

money for the boys

Yawn.. yawn ...yawn

[Hippos]

Now to get some red light cameras on intersections.

 

[kaiyaibob]

Does that price include a maintenance contract to ensure they are properly calibrated

Would not want innocent souls being fined ..would we ?

[RichardColeman]

I'm guessing these are some kind of new smart gun that can differentiate between cheap Thai and expensive Farang ! 

[InMyShadow]

So who is selling them? No bulk discount? 

Appears to be bulk price increase. I wonder how many officials will benefit from this. Looks like at least 20 of them have tacked on a kick back

[natway09]

If they are really serious they will buy 50 cars & put mufti cops on the road where they will get a chance to witness first hand the stupidity of Thai drivers & with their very good existing communication network start getting them off the road

[gwynt]

4 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Just another normal transaction in this junta government like the over price clocks in Government House and statues in the Park. 

Not only statues they have now added 15milBhat toilets to the equation

[mark01]

Usual. Sledgehammer to open a nut.

Some people will be making a nice bit of cash on the side.

The roads will be as dangerous as ever.

 

[Cadbury]

5 hours ago, Thailand said:

They can also detect bombs, overpriced lottery tickets,, and cigarette butts hiden in the sand and come fully equiped with brown envelopes.

You are quite right but the model you refer to is the Deluxe Model. There is also the Radar Gun for Dummies Model which has a built-in gratuity calculator which automatically works out the bribe based on the speed of the vehicle. For those optional extras they would have to pay an extra 325,000 (including commission). 

[Inepto Cracy]

The stupidity of the authorities is getting larger by the week.

Phukets speed cameras are doing very good work every day.

Alas the authorities have given up on them, as they catch more than a thousand offenders every day.

The police? cant print tickets fast enough.

555

[robertthesculptor]

Better than guns. But then they have to learn to use them correctly. But the hell if the actually looked at the traffic every town would be rolling in money...smells like farang trap to me.

[Graemej100]

I welcome anything that might stop speeding drivers. The problem for the police is that these handheld devices have to be calibrated regularly by whoever does calibrations of this sort. If it is not done regularly, and proven with documentation that it has been done, then the results are worthless.  

[Regyai]

Static cameras are in use on motorways etc and work, but alas give no leeway to enhance the income of brown shirt 'Dick Turpins'.

 

These remedy that shortcoming .

 

And it seems happily fullfill all the tiers of kickbacks in their implimentation/acqusition as well.

[worgeordie]

They have no shame,they don't seem to realize that prices for just about

anything can be checked online.

regards worgeordie

[attrayant]

Good example of how all government procurement works, in  many many countries.

I’m not going to defend this procurement because I haven’t seen the details. But when I did hardware purchases for the (Washington DC) city government, high tech hardware like this always came with multi-year support and maintenance contracts, which could be responsible for a big chunk of the total cost.

I hope that’s what’s going on here because if not, then it’s an even worse deal than it already looks like.

[Lupatria]

Well news about way overpriced purchases are coming in the dozens. I need to know when and where the cops have the celebration party

[Ossy]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

A ministry of the interior budgetary committee has given approval for 849 of the devices to be bought at a cost of 675,000 baht each.

This has to be the Heist of the Century: the RTP are being ripped off to the tune of about 3,000%, that is to say that a top quality gun, for traffic use is on sale in the US for 22,000 baht, as below

https://www.opticsplanet.com/s/handheld+radar+guns

 

Now, call me a cynic, call me a Thai junta methodology hater, call me just a grumbling old fart; but this little beauty of a news item must surely come home to bite someone on the arse. And, with the PM making such a good impression on DT and the latter pushing for Thailand to import more stuff from the US, what better time and manner to achieve this, than for the RTP to place a bleeding great order for 849 - note the care, here, to avoid the trap of ordering 850 and finishing up with a spare one (which will, almost certainly be needed on day 1, when the first of many 'lost' guns are reported) - radar guns, amounting to around 18.6M bahts and not the 'over 0.5B baht', as TV Voiced. The stated price is an unbelievable 30 times higher than the 'good shoppers' price.

Now, if (A) there is any 'good shopping' done by the Thai PTB and if (B) the extortionate import duty could be waived on this relationship polishing deal with the US, why the hell doesn't someone with anything resembling a brain, do something before it's too late and another half billion bahts goes down the pan?

[Ossy]

1 hour ago, robertthesculptor said:

Better than guns. But then they have to learn to use them correctly. But the hell if the actually looked at the traffic every town would be rolling in money...smells like farang trap to me.

What . . . you reckon the guns will be able to differentiate between farangs and Thais? No wonder they're costing 30 times over the odds. But I guess the smart cop will be able to weed out the farangs by the fact that they are the only vehicles approaching him in anything like a straight line . . . zzxxzz . . . gotcha, my farang beauty.

Edited October 20, 2017 by Ossy
punctuation

[Pilotman]

1 hour ago, worgeordie said:

They have no shame,they don't seem to realize that prices for just about

anything can be checked online.

regards worgeordie

In a former life, while serving at MoD in the UK, when I pointed out that an item of equipment the Army was seeking to obtain was available from the US at half the cost, I was told that it didn't figure on the list of approved sources and  was None EU, despite being from another NATO member,  and therefore could not be purchased.  That was  EU and Civil Service BS at its most profound.  Something similar may be going on here.  

[BuaBS]

It's becoming more and more like the police state we're trying to escape from. Thailand was the land of the free , with trafic rules "up to you" . Now everywhere these stupid 80km/k with camera signs and radar guns.

 

[Muhendis]

Just a minor point I'm sure but If the police are going to penalise people for speeding shouldn't there be a few speed restriction signs put up first. Also use of those hand held speed cameras was stopped in the UK. The reason? You could point it at a brick wall and record the wall traveling at a few mph. The number of successful prosecutions became zero once people realised the con.

[Muhendis]

7 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

In a former life, while serving at MoD in the UK, when I pointed out that an item of equipment the Army was seeking to obtain was available from the US at half the cost, I was told that it didn't figure on the list of approved sources and  was None EU, despite being from another NATO member,  and therefore could not be purchased.  That was  EU and Civil Service BS at its most profound.  Something similar may be going on here.  

All made in China no doubt.

[sambum]

11 minutes ago, Ossy said:

This has to be the Heist of the Century: the RTP are being ripped off to the tune of about 3,000%, that is to say that a top quality gun, for traffic use is on sale in the US for 22,000 baht, as below

https://www.opticsplanet.com/s/handheld+radar+guns

 

Now, call me a cynic, call me a Thai junta methodology hater, call me just a grumbling old fart; but this little beauty of a news item must surely come home to bite someone on the arse. And, with the PM making such a good impression on DT and the latter pushing for Thailand to import more stuff from the US, what better time and manner to achieve this, than for the RTP to place a bleeding great order for 849 - note the care, here, to avoid the trap of ordering 850 and finishing up with a spare one (which will, almost certainly be needed on day 1, when the first of many 'lost' guns are reported) - radar guns, amounting to around 18.6M bahts and not the 'over 0.5B baht', as TV Voiced. The stated price is an unbelievable 30 times higher than the 'good shoppers' price.

Now, if (A) there is any 'good shopping' done by the Thai PTB and if (B) the extortionate import duty could be waived on this relationship polishing deal with the US, why the hell doesn't someone with anything resembling a brain, do something before it's too late and another half billion bahts goes down the pan?

"why the hell doesn't someone with anything resembling a brain, do something before it's too late and another half billion bahts goes down the pan?"

 

Do you seriously expect an answer to that question?

 

I suspect that all Government departments have an annual budget, and if they do not spend it all, their budget for the following year is reduced. A bit off topic, but the same thing applies to many unnecessary and crazy schemes undertaken by the City councils in the UK, For example in my old home town the Council installed roundabouts needlessly - one literally within a few yards of another one, lights at roundabouts which worked perfectly well without them, and has actually made traffic delays worse.

[Ossy]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

A ministry of the interior budgetary committee has given approval for 849 of the devices to be bought at a cost of 675,000 baht each.

And when this committee of comatose clowns finally sees the red light, re their 3,000%, i.e. 30 times too high, overspend, they will be asked for a much bigger amount, to cover the training of patrol officers. When their sarge dishes these out, they'll think they're going paint-balling.

[sambum]

9 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

In a former life, while serving at MoD in the UK, when I pointed out that an item of equipment the Army was seeking to obtain was available from the US at half the cost, I was told that it didn't figure on the list of approved sources and  was None EU, despite being from another NATO member,  and therefore could not be purchased.  That was  EU and Civil Service BS at its most profound.  Something similar may be going on here.  

Can but agree as I also worked for the MOD at an RAF Maintenance Unit, and the waste was phenomenal!