Booze-Free 'Safety Areas' Set For Songkran

[jackr]

If they really wanted to curb deaths, the whole thing needs to be seriously diluted, like just having one official holiday day, having specific traffic-free areas (no bikes) for the water throwing, and simply fining folk for throwing water on main roads. It may be good fun but culture and sanook has a lot to answer in the thousands that have died over the years. Down south, the water throwing used to go from sun-up to sundown on the 13th, that was it. In CM, you're talking three days and nights sold, and well over a week in the burbs and environs, catching out commuters and ordinary folk!

[nycboy57]

Thank you and well said.

No drinking? Mai sanook na ka!

I think you can enjoy yourself without alcohol.

Yes Dad......!

Sorry to sound a bit crazy, but I always get a bit irritated when people think that the only way they can have fun is to dull their normal feelings with some drug or another. While I understand that drinking can be a pleasant experience, this is only pleasant for others when the drinking is done in moderation.

Drunk, out of control, aggressive people are always the main problem when these kind of festivals happen across the world. It is the most serious problem that we will have this coming SongKran, and many moderate or dare I say non drinkers (including impressionable children) will bear the sufferance of a person that is so intoxicated that they are unaware of how much an ass-hole they are being.

If you can't have fun without getting out of it, then there is something seriously wrong with you (or your life) and you should probably go see a psychiatrist or something.

I ain't your daddy, but I do love my children, I won't be drinking this SongKran.

[sausageandmash]

"serious" darling, not "seriat".

Why everyone so seriet! Relax and Sanook, it is Songkran!

[BlackJack]

No drinking? Mai sanook na ka!

I think you can enjoy yourself without alcohol.

yes i think the same

i will be perched on my balcony with the good book in one hand looking at the mayhem and drunken abomination below

I will be praying for these souls and the devils released by alcohol

good luck to all those that venture out into this drunken orgy

BTW does anyone know if i venture out do i have to drive through the booze zones to get to the shops or can i just drive through the non booze zones - I mean do the zones link up or are they in patches - Pattaya Songran goes for 10 days and i may run out of things

[softgeorge]

No drinking? Mai sanook na ka!

I think you can enjoy yourself without alcohol.

yes i think the same

i will be perched on my balcony with the good book in one hand looking at the mayhem and drunken abomination below

I will be praying for these souls and the devils released by alcohol

good luck to all those that venture out into this drunken orgy

BTW does anyone know if i venture out do i have to drive through the booze zones to get to the shops or can i just drive through the non booze zones - I mean do the zones link up or are they in patches - Pattaya Songran goes for 10 days and i may run out of things

Geez we were having friends over for the afternoon and evening for food and drinks at our home. Got a nice bottle of Penfolds Grange I guess I will have to tip down the sink. The children were going to play in the garden with thier water pistols and the like but will have to tell them sorry some grumpy old wowser might drive past and get offended. Guess we all will have to go and buy a bible or the koran and sit around reciting verses to each or simply put on the slippers grab a rug and climb into a rocking chair and simply remember how we use to have fun. Don't worry grumpy old farts we will cancel Easter also just in case that offends you too.

[spiderleghead]

happy new year

[Tanaka]

They're confidence in this working is shown in the following snews article;

Hospitals Ordered To Prepare For Songkran Road Accidents

http://www.thaivisa....road-accidents/

Booze free safety areas states, "There have been an average of 1,948 deaths per year during Songkran in the past four years and another 1,423 people made disabled by road accidents caused by drunk driving", and yet "Govt hopes to bring down number of deaths" article states;

"During the same period last year, 361 people were killed in road accidents and 3,802 others injured." Thai Math or drunk Statitions?

That must be Thai math. It is similar to the claim of the police, that in 2010 there were about 11.000 people killed on the road, and no source given. The last official statistic I have seen was from 2005 and it stated 18.000 deaths and an estimated number of unreported cases of about 2000.

Today with more cars and motorcycles on the road, with no extended road safety education, nor any law enforcement on the roads of Thailand, how come that the roadtoll decreased by about 50%. Must be another example of Thai math, or a massive increase of nonreported cases.

Considering the level of education with people leaving schools and unis, do you wonder

[Tanaka]

Booze free areas? Great. I love free booze!

Will these booze free areas also be on Koh Chang? You know, the national park where it is already illegal all the time? Hmmm, so that would be a booze free zone in a booze free area.

Last week, as entertainment, we sat and watched a police roadblock on Koh Chang outside of White Sand Beach. The cops stopped everyone without a helmet, of course, but we also saw a bunch of guys with helmets riding rented scooters who were not stopped. What's my point you ask? Well, the guys with helmets were driving the bikes one-handed.....they had big bottles of beer in their left hands.

Booze free zones my gluteus maximus.

It is an unfortunate fact that due to the low intelligence/education law of the BIB that they can only concentrate on the "law of the day", it would cause too much mental stress to enforce more than one law on any given day. My best example was an early morning when I was phoned to tell me that thai lads were siphoning petrol from my bikes outside our shop. As I left home I was lucky(????) to come across2 BIB on a bike outside my home - who told me to report the crime in progress 200m away to a police station 20km away. They couldn't help because they were "patrolling", which apparently means riding a motorcycle and ignoring crime. Possibly they may have been interested before midnight .

I might add that photos of the offenders, their bike and its rego plate were not sufficient to stir any official interest. I suppose if you are poor enough to steal fuel, obviously you don't have enough money to pay bribes, or repair the bikes that you damaged.

There really is not much point to contact the Mob if you want help to stop a crime. You are basically on your own here. Try get a gun, preferably with silencer, and solve the problem permanently yourself next time.

[canopy]

For a second there I thought this thread might be a discussion about the 'Safety Areas' idea that is new for this year. But thumbing through this thread seems to have shifted to other things. I went to the safety area in Phetchabun province and was wanting to compare notes but since the safety areas now appears to be off topic I guess I'll wait for next year to read more about the idea and some discussion about how they worked out. Rarely pays to read past the first post anymore, but I guess that's a topic for the suggestions forum.