Pattaya Traffic Violation

[dpdp]

8 hours ago, giddyup said:

You have no problem with the way Thais drive, so you probably find the death toll acceptable then?

 

Who cares ? No my life and I do not have a family that they could kill.

It's like in Irak or Syria as long as they kill themselves I am ok :-)

 

 

[calexapic]

<deleted> you lot get tiresome sometimes ?? if he was complaining about BIB you would have ranted about them. As he was admitting a misdemeanour ( a minor one at that, as traffic was at a standstill) and praised the BIB you are now bashing him. 

 

Women are never tired of bewailing man’s fickleness in love, but they only seem to snub his constancy.

[giddyup]

5 hours ago, dpdp said:

 

Who cares ? No my life and I do not have a family that they could kill.

It's like in Irak or Syria as long as they kill themselves I am ok :-)

 

 

So you never drive or venture onto the roads in Thailand? Spend all your time in bed do you?

[jacko45k]

20 hours ago, mrmicbkktxl said:

That’s the problem,you are keeping the rules.I drive 18years in Thailand and have no problem the way thais driving their vehicles,I’m prepared for anything,if a foreigner is driving in Thailand it makes the streets unsafe because unpredictable what a foreigner will do next.Just a thought

That is a train of thought I suppose, but I would say be prepared for anything because Thai drivers are unpredictable. Just when you think they can't do something more stupid, they surprise you.

[jacko45k]

I thought the fine for jumping a red light was 1000 baht.

To be honest this is one of the infringements in Thailand that really scares me, some stupid idiot hurtling through a recent red light risking the lives of more obedient and innocent drivers. I would say immediate suspension of licence would be more appropriate.

[ChristianBlessing]

I was recently driving my Thai wife's car on my own, and drove through a red light at the Sukhumvit/Thepprasit intersection. The traffic in front of me slowed to a stop, stranding me in the middle of the intersection. Gridlock was bad enough that a Police officer slowly walked to my car and asked me in fairly good English to back up and produce my Drivers License, which I did. This was the first encounter I have had with Thai Police without my wife in the car, and I was clearly guilty of running a red light.
 
The officer returned with a ticket. I asked if I could "pay it now" hoping the offer of some cash would make the problem go away, but he just waved me off and told me to go to the station to pay the fine tomorrow.
 
I was pretty nervous, having heard so many stories of farangs being mistreated by the BIB. I went to the station the next day and they asked for my Passport, which I did not have. I was told to return with it. Now I was even more nervous, the last thing I wanted was for them to have possession of my Passport. But I brought it back the next day, and was surprised by the efficiency of what ensued. I took a number in a large, clean, modern, comfortable room along with a bunch of other predominantly farang traffic scoff laws. I was called to a window in less than 5 minutes, produced my ticket and Passport, and information was entered in a computer terminal. I was given a slip of paper stating that I owed a 400 THB fine, and sent to another window. There I paid the fine, and my license was quickly located and returned. End of story.
 
I was pleasantly surprised at the efficiency and reasonableness of the way the whole thing was handled. Everyone in the station was very polite and professional, with the exception of a few of the farang kee nook who were ranting and raging over ridiculously inexpensive fines.
 
After all I have read on this forum and others about heavy handed Police treatment, I was surprised at the fairness of it all. Good job Pattaya Police.

Good of you to report this. My only disappointment is that you were prepared to offer a bribe, something that undermines the efficiency you experienced.

Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

[scotsman]

What a coincidence this story has with my own story that happened at the same place in late Dec last year I was driving a hired car and it was very busy at that section of the road. I was in the lane for turning right into Thepprasit  road from Sukhumvit road and the light had changed to orange then red from green so I stopped at the white line.  Now there were many other drivers just ignoring this and just continued to go through the red light but got stuck in the middle but only for a few seconds.  Now behind me a pickup truck with 2 Thai men inside sounded the horn at me for stopping and he was so angry he came out of his pickup and was walking up to my window. He was dressed in a full red and white Andy Pandy suit he looked very funny but it was not funny as he ranted at my window I made some hand gestures to inform him that the light was at red I had to stop.  Well this did not translate very well and he kept on ranting angrily at me then hit my window with his hand and stuck his middle finger up at me. I just looked at him and did nothing as he then walked back to his pickup.  When the lights changed to green again I proceeded to drive right into the road and he tried to side swipe me as he passed me and at great speed with thick black smoke he was gone but I did see him again as he was turning right further down the road and I calmly passed him.  That was my first road rage indecent in the 18 years I have lived in Thailand. 

Regards 

Scotsman      

[ftpjtm]

2 hours ago, ChristianBlessing said:

Good of you to report this. My only disappointment is that you were prepared to offer a bribe, something that undermines the efficiency you experienced.
 

I was just following local customs as I knew them. My point in posting here was to make light of the fact that following proper procedures is not as onerous as I was led to believe.

 

When I first started driving here I started a thread (possibly on another board) asking how expats handle being stopped for a traffic violation. Every reply mentioned offering a bribe to the officer who stops you as essential, many saying they kept 200THB in the folder with their car registration for that purpose, and many saying that the more Police got involved the more expensive and time consuming the resolution would be. Paying whatever it takes to avoid making the matter an official case was mentioned frequently.

 

And I have witnessed my wife being stopped numerous times, and every time she has produced a bribe. She has never in her life followed the proper procedure. I would not have even heard of the procedure of going to the station to pay a fine except that I witnessed my niece doing that once while we were visiting in Chiang Mai, while my Thai relatives berated her for being foolish not to just pay the officer on the spot.

 

When I got home and told my wife the OP story, she was disgusted that I had not tried hard enough to bribe the officer.

 

But after experiencing the proper method of paying a fine, I would be much less likely to offer or be coerced into paying a bribe in the future.

[topt]

6 minutes ago, ftpjtm said:

When I got home and told my wife the OP story, she was disgusted that I had not tried hard enough to bribe the officer.

Not having a go but what chance is there of stopping corruption where this is the prevailing attitude from locals?

[dpdp]

5 hours ago, topt said:

Not having a go but what chance is there of stopping corruption where this is the prevailing attitude from locals?

 

And from foreigners luckily !

I never paid a fine at the station and hopefully will never. Enough talking to the rat in uniform on the road, no feeling to meet more of them at the station.

 

 

[balo]

9 hours ago, ftpjtm said:

She has never in her life followed the proper procedure.

Then it's about time that she and other Thais start to respect the law.  Bribes will never go away if "everyone" accept it in their daily life.