Crackdown! Tourists in Pattaya face jail for riding motorcycles without a licence

[petemoss]

5 hours ago, BestB said:

In the mean time , thai are allowed to ride and drive without a license with a 500 baht fine.

 

such measures needed to be introduced because it is foreigners who are the source of all road fatalities in Thailand????

 

Not knocking the decision just curious why same law does not apply to locals 

500 baht? My wife was fined 80 baht for not having her licence with her, actually didn't have a licence but told the cop she'd left it at home, cheaper apparently. Reduced to 40 baht for cash.

 

The same law does apply to locals but the cops have been there, tried that and gave it up as a bad job. Now they're trying with farangs, more likely to listen and fatter wallets.

 

 

[Assurancetourix]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

These were being strictly enforced, he said with no get out clause. 

 

The force is also cracking down on illegally adapted motorcycles and cars in the city. 

Thailand, the land of crackdowns 

 

Let's sleep quietly; Nothing will change at best before the 22nd century

[smudger1951]

I am allways amazed at how many school children can afford a motorcycle/scooter to get to school, usually with a couple of schoolmates. I am sure they all have licenses ? ? ? The schools could easily put a stop this.

[petemoss]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Pol Maj Arut Sathanon

Looks a bit on the young side does the Major. I wonder how much Daddy had to pay to get him that job? As much use as a chocolate teapot.

[Vacuum]

3 minutes ago, petemoss said:

My wife was fined 80 baht for not having her licence with her, actually didn't have a licence but told the cop she'd left it at home, cheaper apparently. Reduced to 40 baht for cash.

If you could rise her allowance by 500 baht every 5years, she might pass the fines....

[legend49]

Seems like a competition for Dumb and Dumber; which one can think up the stupidest idea of the month?

 

 

Shops renting bikes to tourists could face a fine of up to 2,000 baht for contravening the regulations.  And why do they not a get months jail too?????

 

[katatonic]

51 minutes ago, Chivas said:

Rubbish absolute rubbish.....if you dont have a proper motorbike licence then you are simply illegal and should be treated as such. Bang em up simple as

Who's talking rubbish?? My UK car licence allows me to ride bikes up to 125cc, which covers 99% of bikes in Thailand. Most countries licences do. So not illegal at all. No banging up - simple as, although it sounds as if you like the idea.

[transam]

2 minutes ago, Kim J said:

This thread is about tourists driving unlicenced and the police stating they are going to target those tourists that are breaking the law. what is wrong with that?

I agree with what you say here, and not only Soi Kaotalo you can see such behaviour as you describe all over Thailand, and indeed it needs dealing with. But that does not give tourists the right to come here and break the law by driving without the correct training, experience and documentation.

 

Hey, if a tourist wants to rent a bike then the rental shop must see a license, no license, no bike. Simple....Any tourist caught riding with no license pays the fine and the BiB must fine the shop for renting the bike to an unlicensed person...

 

Stuff must be stamped out at sourse, the bike shop...

[bluesea]

CHING CHING CHING CHING I CAN SEE THOSE CASH REGISTERS WORKING OVERTIME!!

[jmccarty]

First time I visited Thailand was in 1987, Phuket, needed to show and make a copy of my motorcycle driving license and the guy insisted on keeping my passport.  He had a lock box full of foreign passports and would not give me the contract to sign without agreeing to him keeping my passport.  So I did, and when I gave him back the noisy MTX125 (if I remember right), he gave me back my passport.   Since then, I have never rented a motorcycle, but many cars.  All needed to give license and passport copies only in the past few years.  Which country allows tourists to drive motorcycle or any motor vehicle with no license? Googled it, can't see any.

[transam]

11 minutes ago, katatonic said:

Who's talking rubbish?? My UK car licence allows me to ride bikes up to 125cc, which covers 99% of bikes in Thailand. Most countries licences do. So not illegal at all. No banging up - simple as, although it sounds as if you like the idea.

Not all tourists are from the UK and your 99% of bikes here are probably 110cc..

Your UK car license does not allow you to drive a bike up to 125cc...In the UK you can if you have a valid CBT certificate which is not a license to show the BiB here....You must take a test for the bike catagory..

[ttrd]

RE - The Pattaya police are coming down hard on tourists who rent motorcycles without a licence. 

 

* If they really wanted to solve the problem they should start in the other end and arrest those who rent out to persons without a proper License, but unfortunately it will be less tea-Money and the Money talks … 

[Benmart]

The roads in Pattaya are out of control and the police are culpable in this chaotic situation. The majority of miscreants on scooters seem to be other than "foreign".  One need only stand at the intersection of Thappraya and Thepprasit Roads. The modified scooter mufflers, people without helmets, babies in adults arms, scooters and cars going through red lights baffles the imagination. Where are the police in these areas? Absent is the answer.

[SuwadeeS]

Another time focus on foreigners.

 

Its so discriminating this country.

They would do good in checking all the underages kids.

(Sometimes only around 9 - 10 years)

There are approx. a million of underage motorcyclist, but 

nothing happen.

They should do a crackdown on underage motorcycle drivers.

[transam]

7 minutes ago, Kim J said:

Again I agree it should be done as you state, but that still in my eyes will never justify anyone to drive unlicenced.

I have no idea where you are from, but how would you feel if some tourist replicated the behaviour being discussed in this thread in your country, and in the process killed or maimed someone? I am sure your thoughts would be very different to many being echoed here about people coming to Thailand and breaking the law. There is no justification at all for such behaviour and people travelling from western Nations should know better.

In the UK tourists would NOT be able to rent anything without a valid license..

[Vacuum]

1 hour ago, VocalNeal said:

it is going to piss off ALL the foreigners who will now be stopped regardless of whether they live here or not.

Why should they be pissed off if they have their DL, tax, insurance, passports etc up to date?

[Basil B]

5 hours ago, petermik said:

Face jail or 1000 baht fine.....10,000 baht would be more of a deterrent.....as for loud exhausts are they seriously suggesting it`s only tourists to blame.....the mind boggles here sometimes

Yes, 10,000B. impound the bike and make the owners pay 20,000B to get it back, danger is the owners are likely to say the bike was stolen, and anyone foolish enough to leave their passport as security with the owners can kiss it goodbye... 

 

But should be same for Thai's as well.

[jacko45k]

18 minutes ago, katatonic said:

Who's talking rubbish?? My UK car licence allows me to ride bikes up to 125cc, which covers 99% of bikes in Thailand. Most countries licences do. So not illegal at all. No banging up - simple as, although it sounds as if you like the idea.

And will you be putting L-Plates on the bikes and have you taken a CBT as you are required by UK law too?  If not, it would be illegal.

 

 

[from the home of CC]

and I'd like to see 1st offence driving drunk offenders jailed then banned for life from Thailand..

[newnative]

  Darn it all.  When I saw 'face jail...' I thought, great! Then I get to the story and I see they can pay a 1000 baht fine. Hmm.  Do I want to do 30 days in a Thai jail or pay a 1000 baht?  Thinking, thinking.  So much for the 'crackdown'.  Thanks for nothing.  

[Kerryd]

They used to set up a checkpoint on Sukhumvit at the Highway Police office just before the Pattaya Tai intersection. They'd segregate the left lane and have officers on the road flagging all motorcycles over.

 

All.

 

Thai. Foreigner. Scooter. Harley. Foodcart. Mototaxi.

They had a slew of officers and TPVs there and were checking everything. Helmets, licences, registration.

First time I was pulled over, I was on a scooter and got nailed because I'd forgotten my IDP on the other bike. 200 baht fine and I was on my way. Had to wait about 30 minutes in line to pay the fine and everyone ahead of me (and behind me) was Thai.

 

Second time I was on the Harley. A volunteer came over, checked my tax decal and driver's license (I was wearing a helmet of course) and off I went. No one was being allowed to bypass the checkpoint regardless of race or type of moto.

 

3rd time, I was a passenger on a moto taxi (I was going out and expecting to be drinking so I took a taxi). They checked his license and registration and then we were allowed to go. Again, most of the people being checked were Thais, not foreigners, though there were a couple of them there as well.

If they did more of that, more often, it would eventually start having an effect. I remember a time, not that long ago really, when nobody wore a helmet at all !

Then they brought in the law that the driver had to wear a helmet (but not the 1-4 other people on the bike). People were wearing all manner of crap on their heads (like normal work hard hats) trying to pass them off as helmets.

Then they started expecting everyone to wear a helmet.

Did get a ticket once for no helmet - because the chick I had with me apparently didn't want to mess her hair up so she didn't put on the helmet I had handed her. Even after I pointed out 2 different spots that the police liked to set up to do helmet checks.

I come around a corner (Pattaya Tai onto #2 Road) and an officer flags me over. I pointed to my helmet and asked what's wrong. He smiled and pointed behind me and sure enough, she who got the boot minutes later was sitting there holding the helmet in her hands and a dumb look on her face. (When we got to where we were going I gave her some money for taxi fare and told her to get lost.)

Again though, everyone else that was pulled over was Thai.

It's taken awhile, but when I ride around know (at least in the main parts of the city) most people (including passengers) are wearing helmets and even on the darkside, most people that are going further than just the closest shop or 7-11 are wearing helmets as well.

Rome wasn't built in a day as they say and getting everyone in Thailand properly trained and licensed isn't going to happen overnight either. It will take decades (at least) until they are even close to "Western" standards in that regard.

One thing they could start with is to start impounding bikes when they catch people driving with no licence (and/or no tax decal/registration). Of course the problem is, within days they'd have thousands of motos piling up in the impound yards, many of which would sit there for years and never be claimed. (Back home, every couple of years the police auction off stuff like that so that they aren't holding it forever.)

If they did start doing that (impounding motos) - it wouldn't take long at all before pretty much everyone on the road was license/registered as the word would get around very quickly and most people wouldn't want to risk having their scooter impounded. 

That would be much more effective than a small fine that may never get paid (or is so small it isn't a real consequence).

Until then (which will be sometime after a certain hot area suddenly freezes over) all we can do is make sure we are "legal" and hope for better days in the future.

[hobobo]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

They face a month in jail or a one thousand baht fine. 

 

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Offenders could face a month in jail and a fine up to 1,000 baht or both.

That's a big difference: the first statement gives tourists a choice (who doesn't have 1,000 baht?), while the second statement takes your "pad Thai in jail" off the menu.

[Vacuum]

1 hour ago, madmen said:

100k plus jail or flicking a ciggie. 1k for no licence to kill 

sounds fair

 

..and deportation for vaping.

[mickybangkok]

5 hours ago, BestB said:

In the mean time , thai are allowed to ride and drive without a license with a 500 baht fine.

 

such measures needed to be introduced because it is foreigners who are the source of all road fatalities in Thailand????

 

Not knocking the decision just curious why same law does not apply to locals 

He's just a another silly little man.

[Peterhua]

14 minutes ago, Vacuum said:

Why should they be pissed off if they have their DL, tax, insurance, passports etc up to date?

Because it gets boring after a while and some Thai police like to find something .

Ever thought of that

[murraynz]

5 hours ago, shackleton said:

check whether its a tourist or Thai  if no license fine

then check if no insurance cover again fine  

insurance is worthless, if driving without a licience, same anywhere

[edwinchester]

The number of Thais in prison for riding bikes or driving cars unlicensed must run into the millions.

[Jane Dough]

Funny thing is that car drivers with an International License would be almost as dangerous as a newbie on a bike. Cars and bikes are separate beasts. Thai driving and western driving separate again. In my opinion any tourist without extensive bike riding experience who rides a motorbike while on holiday in Thailand is asking for trouble.

 

Rooster

[murraynz]

1 hour ago, smudger1951 said:

I am allways amazed at how many school children can afford a motorcycle/scooter to get to school, usually with a couple of schoolmates. I am sure they all have licenses ? ? ? The schools could easily put a stop this.

three o a motorbike, all with no helmets...that horrifies me...life is sooo cheap in thailand

[parafareno]

Thailand is the third country in the world with most people in jail  just behind USA......shameful and still people are coming there