Police Doing Their Job?

[naboo]

I guess heres my two cents...in ChiangMai if i wear a helmet they check my vehicle ownership paper which you must present or get fined and if i have that they look at the "Por Ror Bor". They always find a way to get money from you.

You must be really unlucky, or doing something seriously wrong. I've only ever been stopped once - when a passenger wasn't wearing a helmet. I could have been done for numerous things, but only got a ticket for my passenger not having a helmet. He didn't take any ID off me (I had none), let me continue on an untaxed, uninsured bike with no licence...... When I got to the station to pay said fine, they were even so good as to explain exactly how to sort out a licence, tax, insurance etc etc. No desire to fine me more than the 200B I was happy to pay, and every desire to help me get properly legal.

[TheSource]

I guess heres my two cents...in ChiangMai if i wear a helmet they check my vehicle ownership paper which you must present or get fined and if i have that they look at the "Por Ror Bor". They always find a way to get money from you.

You must be really unlucky, or doing something seriously wrong. I've only ever been stopped once - when a passenger wasn't wearing a helmet. I could have been done for numerous things, but only got a ticket for my passenger not having a helmet. He didn't take any ID off me (I had none), let me continue on an untaxed, uninsured bike with no licence...... When I got to the station to pay said fine, they were even so good as to explain exactly how to sort out a licence, tax, insurance etc etc. No desire to fine me more than the 200B I was happy to pay, and every desire to help me get properly legal.

Lol you met some really benevolent police officers...i forgot to mention that i am Thai so they are more stringent in that case...but helmet check days make for a much more fun drive, because you see so many people driving the opposite way!

[cardinalblue]

Perhaps because its only 200B? I always choose to wear my helmet, but the fine has absolutely no influence on that choice whatsoever.

Agreed..the fine needs to be much higher like 2,000B and that will change the behavior of these future brain injury waiting to happen folks.

CB

[sudo]

Perhaps because its only 200B? I always choose to wear my helmet, but the fine has absolutely no influence on that choice whatsoever.

Agreed..the fine needs to be much higher like 2,000B and that will change the behavior of these future brain injury waiting to happen folks.

CB

I think 200B is about right, it represents the average days work for a thai. About the same for speeding fines in australia which average about $80-$120 I think. But maybe they need some sort of demerits system, that stops rich people just accepting the fine. But of course for that to work, the need for a valid licence would need to be enforced, and to do that effectively you would need a portable computer and or radio base that can run the license checks. Doubt thats gonna happen any time soon.

Possibly a good idea would be to hand out 100B vouchers when people pay the fine, that can go towards the cost of purchasing a helmet at a store local store. Might appeal to the Thai sense of getting a bargain?

Edited July 15, 2010 by sudo

[martijn12345]

I haven't been able to pay a fine on the spot for over 2 years. My cute GF was, 2 months ago. (But I had to promise the officer to give the money back to her )

I have been fined 500,400 and 200 baht for not wearing a helmet. I always ended up paying 200 baht at the station, except this time I brought a very cute girl with me who sweet-mouthed to the officer and the fine became 100 baht.

They never made a big deal of me not having an ID, or licence. They once accepted my Dutch student free transport card as ID. That time I jumped the red lights (not knowing, tuk tuk in front of me drove off, I figured it's green We both got a fine) while not wearing any helmet. They never spoke a word about the helmet.

I think Thai police, get send out with a plan like ' today u check for helmet' so they don't mind u jump the redlight. ' Today u check for ppl jumping the lights' so they don't care about helmets or IDs.

Final word of advice, i found the police to be very active on those cool mornings when the sun is behind the clouds, those nice cool mornings, I will always wear a helmet then. Today it's kinda hot and sunny day, I am pretty sure they are not active now.

[invex]

Again and for so many times already:

all this has NOTHING to do with safety, nothing at all. They don't care about your safety for 1 millisecond; it is to extort money from you only, by following the law by just a fraction. Care about your safety would mean they have to change their attitude in thousands of other things and that is NOT going to happen, believe me......

If they care safety, they would wear a helmet by themselves; many don't.

-It is like in BKK; when you drop a cigarette-bud on the street, they will fine you 2.000 Baht or 500 for themselves. You think they care about a clean city when you see the dirt 1 meter away from were you dropped your cigarette?

-Now again with the elephants; they will charge the tourist up to 10.000 Baht for feeding them. They law is that the elephants cannot enter they city at first. The so called "mahouts" pay. You think they care about the animals?

-When a special brigade had to come from BKK to shut down many brothels in CM with underage kids, ran by them; do you really think they care about those kids?

-When you see all the shops with piracy cd's. I noticed when they pass they look at the other side. Why? You think they care about piracy?

-When they kill people, and there are thousands of examples of it. The worst case scenario for them is to get transferred to an area where they cannot extort money anymore (too poor). Do you really think they care about the victims?

The list is longer than this board can handle.

There are hundred of thousands examples of them how they behave in every aspect of society.

If you are honest to yourself, try to get some info on the net, in the papers, or listen to people who were very close to observ the way they handle things here.

You will see, they have NO good intentions; not to assist you, not to help you. They only thing they want is money. They not have the same attitude as in the western world.

Short; if you like to do a test about safety with them. Wear a construction-helmet, those plastic things. You will pass.

[TheSource]

Again and for so many times already:

all this has NOTHING to do with safety, nothing at all. They don't care about your safety for 1 millisecond; it is to extort money from you only, by following the law by just a fraction. Care about your safety would mean they have to change their attitude in thousands of other things and that is NOT going to happen, believe me......

If they care safety, they would wear a helmet by themselves; many don't.

-It is like in BKK; when you drop a cigarette-bud on the street, they will fine you 2.000 Baht or 500 for themselves. You think they care about a clean city when you see the dirt 1 meter away from were you dropped your cigarette?

-Now again with the elephants; they will charge the tourist up to 10.000 Baht for feeding them. They law is that the elephants cannot enter they city at first. The so called "mahouts" pay. You think they care about the animals?

-When a special brigade had to come from BKK to shut down many brothels in CM with underage kids, ran by them; do you really think they care about those kids?

-When you see all the shops with piracy cd's. I noticed when they pass they look at the other side. Why? You think they care about piracy?

-When they kill people, and there are thousands of examples of it. The worst case scenario for them is to get transferred to an area where they cannot extort money anymore (too poor). Do you really think they care about the victims?

The list is longer than this board can handle.

There are hundred of thousands examples of them how they behave in every aspect of society.

If you are honest to yourself, try to get some info on the net, in the papers, or listen to people who were very close to observ the way they handle things here.

You will see, they have NO good intentions; not to assist you, not to help you. They only thing they want is money. They not have the same attitude as in the western world.

Short; if you like to do a test about safety with them. Wear a construction-helmet, those plastic things. You will pass.

Spot on about them! If youre into the whole corruption conspiracy thing...maybe you should try reading "The Murder of Sherry Ann Duncan" Its a classic example of the system.

[leemo]

I'd like to connect with the generous BiB that stopped you guys for a mere 200 bt no-helmet fine.

Common sense and the survival instinct should kick in when riding a bike, esp in Pty, so no sympathy to anyone fined for not wearing a helmet. In fact a young helmetless Brit that took a bend too fast and ended up dead a while back, had a helmet attached to his bike but for his own reasons thought it looked better there than on his head.

That said, last month we bought a new bike and had traveled barely 2 km from the shop when mrs on the back (wearing gov uniform) got a call, so she undid the strap and adjusted her helmet to snuggle the phone in. She was nattering away to whoever as we turned into Beach Road at Dongtan where two cops were set up. The first read the situation, smiled and waved us by, but the other rushed into the road to stop us. Now, I don't usually get involved with the BiB, as I'm sure some wise person has rightly suggested it's pointless trying to be reasonable with a busted skull, but on this occasion it got rather heated...same end result, though, a 400 bt fine.

On a side note, during the c 25-30 mins before end of play we noticed they did not stop a single helmetless or 3-up Thai, only farangs. Mrs did point this out, fwiw, and got the statutory shrug.

[ChouDoufu]

don't hold it against them, it's the same everywhere in the world. except for germany, perhaps, where ordnung muss sein. the main duty of traffic police is simply revenue enhancement.

[uptheos]

I do think it's a good thing to be clamping down on drivers without helmets, as this will help to save lives (hopefully), usually the rider of the bike. However, I think they should concentrate their efforts on sticking it hard to those that are more likely to take innocent lives.

Concentrate patrols past traffic lights, more breath tests for drunk driving and hit the mobile phone users hard. These are the areas that should carry the really heavy fines and be targeted.

Targeting no helmet wearers is a good source of revenue, that doesn't involve much hard work or fretting about nicking some Benz or Lexus driver.

[martijn12345]

Again and for so many times already:

all this has NOTHING to do with safety, nothing at all. They don't care about your safety for 1 millisecond; it is to extort money from you only, by following the law by just a fraction. Care about your safety would mean they have to change their attitude in thousands of other things and that is NOT going to happen, believe me......

If they care safety, they would wear a helmet by themselves; many don't.

-It is like in BKK; when you drop a cigarette-bud on the street, they will fine you 2.000 Baht or 500 for themselves. You think they care about a clean city when you see the dirt 1 meter away from were you dropped your cigarette?

-Now again with the elephants; they will charge the tourist up to 10.000 Baht for feeding them. They law is that the elephants cannot enter they city at first. The so called "mahouts" pay. You think they care about the animals?

-When a special brigade had to come from BKK to shut down many brothels in CM with underage kids, ran by them; do you really think they care about those kids?

-When you see all the shops with piracy cd's. I noticed when they pass they look at the other side. Why? You think they care about piracy?

-When they kill people, and there are thousands of examples of it. The worst case scenario for them is to get transferred to an area where they cannot extort money anymore (too poor). Do you really think they care about the victims?

The list is longer than this board can handle.

There are hundred of thousands examples of them how they behave in every aspect of society.

If you are honest to yourself, try to get some info on the net, in the papers, or listen to people who were very close to observ the way they handle things here.

You will see, they have NO good intentions; not to assist you, not to help you. They only thing they want is money. They not have the same attitude as in the western world.

Short; if you like to do a test about safety with them. Wear a construction-helmet, those plastic things. You will pass.

Aren't you a glass half empty

[mcgriffith]

Never ticketed or stopped in all my years here.

dam_n.

Got the 5 yr license, both auto and motorsai. Current reg sticker (both bikes). Wing 41 sticker (both bikes). Full insurance (beyond the crap 3rd party minimum required to renew reg) both bikes.

Go through checkpoints all the time- I'm begging them to pull me over, so I can show the BIB all this hard won paperwork.

Never happens; life is not fair sometimes.

Probably it is because I always wear a helmet (I own 5, from a $700 OGK handmade to an Index openface).

Not meaning to be smug about this. I've seen some pretty shocking accidents, some of which were right in front of me, where people died on motorsai....not wearing helmets.

You make your own decision. :jap:

[lsk]

Just a quick note. Was pulled over by the police near Rimping market today. Initially thought it was for not wearing an helmet but was later informed is was for not having the required motorcycle documents (green book). Bit strange as the bike is a rental and had rental agreement on hand. Anyway off I went to pay the 200 baht fine......

[CMX]

A. I think concentrating on helmets is more likely to save lives than other approaches. The percentage of kids (and they know it's daylight hours and not weekends or evenings, alas) at risk is enormous. I could be wrong, but going after drunk drivers is worthwhile - but apparently this force needs to do simple things one at a time to keep direction. If you look around on BKK, you will not see the situation here.

I can recall a great resistance in my country to wearing seatbelts. I did for a while - nobody's going to tell me! Same here.

B. I have it from two sources, insurance and Land Transportation, that copies of pertinent pages are satisfactory. Wrong?

C. I have some experience of police officers in countries other than Thailand. Alas, they've all been honest.

Edited December 2, 2010 by CMX

[uptheos]

Just a quick note. Was pulled over by the police near Rimping market today. Initially thought it was for not wearing an helmet but was later informed is was for not having the required motorcycle documents (green book). Bit strange as the bike is a rental and had rental agreement on hand. Anyway off I went to pay the 200 baht fine......

Having to carry a registration book is stupid, but I guess people can just stick it in their helmet, then they won't forget it.

[LJW]

it is my undestanding that any tickets that are written will give the Police Officer 25% of the ticket..

Also if you call the cops and ask about any stop that does not write tickets, they will tell you 'no need to stop for those guys'

[cmsally]

Nobody carries their ownership book in the vehicle, it is just one extra bonus for any potential thieves. Everyone has a photocopy of the pertinent pages in that book as well as any insurance documents.

I think if you question the "authorities" that will be what they tell you.

As a rental bike there is no way anyone is going to hand over the ownership documents to you.