Parade Kicks Off Phuket Helmet Crackdown

[webfact]

Parade kicks off Phuket helmet crackdown

The parade kicks off outside Phuket City Police Station.

PHUKET: -- Phuket City Police kicked off their helmet safety campaign yesterday with around 4,000 helmet-clad riders on some 2,000 motorbikes parading down the island’s roads.

From now on, police are pledging to crack down heavily on both drivers and passengers without helmets.

Thai traffic law states that both drivers and passengers without helmets can be fined up to 500 baht. A driver transporting a passenger not wearing a helmet is subject to an additional fine of up to 1,000 baht.

The drivers and passengers participating in the hour-long ride in Phuket Town were students at local schools and universities, motorcycle club members, police and local residents.

At the ceremony, Phuket City Police Superintendent Wanchai Ekpornpit said that for the last few years Phuket has either been at the top of the list or in the top five provinces with the most traffic accidents in Thailand.

Phuket’s roads see around 33 to 35 injuries a day, and 15 or 16 deaths a month from traffic accidents, police said.

Col Wanchai said, “Phuket is a famous tourism destination around the world and millions of tourists, both Thai and foreign, parade into Phuket every year. As the tourists come in, the traffic problem gets worse.

“Keeping them safe when using the roads is getting harder as the available road surfaces are not enough to handle the increase in vehicle numbers. Right now, Phuket has 297,645 registered vehicles, about 208,183 of which are motorbikes,” he said.

As part of the ceremony, the Phuket City Police Department presented 1,000 helmets, donated by the Global i-care Corporation, to 800 motorcycle taxi drivers from 60 stations in Phuket Town. Each driver received a helmet, and the remainder were given to taxi stations in town.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-07-02

[dantilley]

Thai traffic law states that both drivers and passengers without helmets can be fined up to 500 baht. A driver transporting a passenger not wearing a helmet is subject to an additional fine of up to 1,000 baht.

I wonder if they'll start enforcing this in Bangkok. I get a motorbike taxi every day to the BTS station, and not once have I been given a helmet to wear, though the driver is always wearing one. I've gone past police who are stopping other motorcyclists for not wearing a helmet - they don't seem concerned that I, as a passenger, am not wearing one.

[shaunoro]

I don't think the passenger helmet law has come into effect in Bangkok yet.

[ESB7]

Already exists in Pattaya. Stil no helmet law in Cha am, just great going anywhere you want without one

[visions]

[

Already exists in Pattaya. Stil no helmet law in Cha am, just great going anywhere you want without one

Very hard to understand why one would choose to NOT wear one?? when 87% of Thai road fatalities being m?bike riders (front and back) not wearing a helmet.???

Basicly the choice is a "no brainer"

[Jimi007]

Another great "crack down!" LOL! Only enforced by Phuket town police. Oh that's right, now they want to call it Phuket City. Chalong, no problem, just the driver needs a helmet. Selective enforcement of laws just makes Thailand police look more like the joke they really are... How long will this latest crack down last? Until the police make enough money?

Edited July 2, 2010 by Jimi007

[kuffki]

I wonder when they start to enforce another few laws such as Riding without license under the age of 16 with 3 -5 people on the bike and of course no helmet. Should one of this "nice" kids cause an accident somehow you are at fault

[jayjay0]

Exelent plan. Let us hope they carry through with it

I believe that even more important would be making tourists who rent bikes prove there ability to ride one in a country where the infrastructure is not sufficent to begin with. I am sure that many of them have no problem with riding one where they come from.

But here in a tourist section of the country with many unqualified riders on the road and for some of them riding on the other side of the road than what they are used to. It scares me to think that I a 68 year old man who has never ridden a motor bike in his life and only once 50 years ago rode a motorcycle for ten minuts could walk into any rental place and rent a motor bike. I don't imagine staying up on it would be any different than on my bycicle. So am I qualified. I think not

Edited July 2, 2010 by jayjay0