Jailed 5 Hours For Illegal U-Turn, Had Not Been Drinking

[marinediscoking]

This happened on Sukumvit near center road recently, my friend who was coming out from his condo on his motorcycle cut across a u-turn area and then was stopped by a waiting police. His bike is in his name, he has a valid thai drivers license and had not been drinking one drop. He was coming out of the soi with the exotic cars for sale in the glass showroom going directly across through the u-turn so he could get to center rd. The u-turn is only for traffic heading north wishing to go south. He was stopped in front of King power.

The police said wait here and shortly after some others were also stopped while doing this and then were put into a minivan and driven to Soi 9. The only cop who talked to him at the police station said in English "you broke the law here in thailand, we are putting you in jail now, tomorrow you will go to court and the next day you will be kicked out of the country".

My friend who has been here more than 10 years, when he heard this knew this was complete B.S. but I took hours before he was allowed a phone call. He called me to come help so I got one of his gig's to come with to help with the paperwork. After the first call I did not hear it, the cop did not want him to make another so he had to forcefully object to make another call. Once arriving at Soi 9 she was told bail of 10K was required which was paid. He was in the jail part of station with 5 other thai's who had done the same thing, he did not know about the "bail" option until he the others speaking in thai about it.

It was never suggested by anyone there to pay a certain amount in form of a bribe to settle it. The other thai's 4 men one female all paid the bail as well.

The next day he was in jomtien in some municipal building for hours trying to get some paper work required for the court the following day.

In court he and the others were ordered to pay a 2,000 baht fine each and that was the end of it.

He did get his bail returned a few days later.

I have been here about 20 years now and never heard of such a thing, has this happened to anyone else?

[JoePai]

It does and that is why you need a mininum of Class 3 insurance!

[jbrain]

Interesting times in Pattaya thse days it seems.

If this is the reaction to a simple traffic offence now, then I assume that bag snatchers will be shot at the spot from now.

[guzzi850m2]

I don't think you are allowed to cut across a road to get to a U-turn.

Yes you have to be more careful nowadays and follow the traffic rules, no drunk driving, some left turns in intersections have a sign that say: wait red light.

if it happens in the weekend you might not be able to pay bail and will have to wait until Monday.

Never head about somebody been kicked out of the country for traffic violations, yet.

[brewsterbudgen]

Interesting report. While some complain about corrupt police taking on the spot "fines", it seems preferable to this!

[AdmiralNelson]

From my experiences from several years ago this sounds a good deterrant.

Stay legal and drive legal. Their country and their rules.

Edited November 1, 2012 by AdmiralNelson

[Brunus]

I knew that you could go to jail for drunk driving but I have never heard of anybody jailed for a simple traffic violation like that. Does anybody know what are the laws on this matter? I mean which traffic violations include jail time and which don't. I sincerely hope that it's not at the police's discretion

[poanoi]

I have seen first hand when police falsely claim traffic offense,

in other words you can go to jail for just driving legally, and be fined.

[Woody1]

OP, you state your friend was held in the jail part of the station. Was he locked up in a cell with the other Thai offenders?

If he was held with the other five offenders, one of whom was female, I wouldn't have thought he was in a cell.

[monty]

Rather weird.

I was of the impression that one could only get arrested pending court hearing for criminal offenses.

Drunk driving is one, as is driving recklessly resulting in accident/injury/death (hence the bail fund insurance).

However I was not aware that an illegal u-turn was a criminal offense!

Curious as to what the actual offense he was fined for, might very well be written down as reckless driving endangering other road users as opposed to an illegal u-turn...

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Thaivisa Connect App

[MJCM]

Maybe it has something to do with this ?

[Satcommlee]

There is a big push on driving on the wrong side of the road, or in the wrong direction at the moment.

It is one of the highest causes of road fatalities in Thailand, and when people learn about this from others hopefully people will start driving properly and with more consideration to other road users.

I wish they'd jail those B**tards that cut in on long queue's too!

[AdmiralNelson]

Rather weird.

I was of the impression that one could only get arrested pending court hearing for criminal offenses.

Drunk driving is one, as is driving recklessly resulting in accident/injury/death (hence the bail fund insurance).

However I was not aware that an illegal u-turn was a criminal offense!

Curious as to what the actual offense he was fined for, might very well be written down as reckless driving endangering other road users as opposed to an illegal u-turn...

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Thaivisa Connect App

It is reckless driving surely ??

Sooner people become aware that this can be the outcome than the better for Thais and Foreigners alike....??

[poanoi]

Yes, this was wreckless,

but keep in mind the corrupt police here that don't even blush

when charging you for a random 'traffic offense' without any other reason

than to make a buck on You.

And now you're gonna be jailed for greedy corrupt scumbags ??!

tip for today: if you're still gonna drive, get a video cam and mount it on the bike,

and record every meter you drive, and have someone with balls with you that will defend that cam

to the death, for proof in court.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Rimmer
Unnecessary

[marinediscoking]

It does and that is why you need a mininum of Class 3 insurance!

He showed his Class 1 insurance and there was no accident.

[marinediscoking]

OP, you state your friend was held in the jail part of the station. Was he locked up in a cell with the other Thai offenders?

If he was held with the other five offenders, one of whom was female, I wouldn't have thought he was in a cell.

Yes he was in a cell with the female but from what he could tell everyone in that cell were there for the same reason.

[craigt3365]

Yes, this was wreckless,

but keep in mind the corrupt police here that don't even blush

when charging you for a random 'traffic offense' without any other reason

than to make a buck on You.

And now you're gonna be jailed for greedy corrupt scumbags ??!

tip for today: if you're still gonna drive, get a video cam and mount it on the bike,

and record every meter you drive, and have someone with balls with you that will defend that cam

to the death, for proof in court.

Or, obey the laws and don't cut across and drive illegally in the wrong direction? Just saying...

I was on Klang a few months ago headed towards the beach. At the light where you turn to get to the parking lot at Big C, a foreigner tried to drive up Klang on the wrong side of the road. As you know, that road is crazy busy and that's where people drive to make a left. The guy got stuck. He and his buddy had to lift the bike up on the sidewalk, where they proceeded on....right down the sidewalk.

I'm glad the police are finally enforcing this. I did get a video cam for the car. Primarily for when a crazy scooter driver cuts in front of me, or when they are driving the wrong direction on the road.

[wantan]

I do not like the way how the thai government is enforcing the rules, but i like that they do it

Saber-rattling. They will do it a while and than realize that nothing will change. There is simply too much chaos on thai streets, not possible to start at one particular point. And of course the bribes are not helpful too. As long as the officials itself (teacher, parents, policemen in their spare time, ...) are not respecting the traffic laws, noone will do it.

Edited November 1, 2012 by wantan

[guzzi850m2]

Or, obey the laws and don't cut across and drive illegally in the wrong direction? Just saying...

I was on Klang a few months ago headed towards the beach. At the light where you turn to get to the parking lot at Big C, a foreigner tried to drive up Klang on the wrong side of the road. As you know, that road is crazy busy and that's where people drive to make a left. The guy got stuck. He and his buddy had to lift the bike up on the sidewalk, where they proceeded on....right down the sidewalk.

I'm glad the police are finally enforcing this. I did get a video cam for the car. Primarily for when a crazy scooter driver cuts in front of me, or when they are driving the wrong direction on the road.

The strange thing is that an alarming numbers of expats quickly adapt to Thai style driving on both cars and motorbikes. I seen them many times not using the signal lights, drunk driving and in your case drive on the opposite of the road which I have also seen, crazy.

[poanoi]

That the traffic-ants cut lanes during U-turns on sukumvit (or otherwise)

is another reason to leave this sh!thole, as is the miserable traffic jam.

Never had any real issues with those who drive in the wrong direction tho,

even the thais know that is wrong, and so they default on giving way,

just like the couple you mentioned gave way, and eventually gave up.

Likewise while driving on sidewalk btw

[smedly]

one of the most dangerous things I see here in Pattaya are motorbikes and sometimes even cars driving on the wrong side of the road to pass a line of traffic backed up at a red light, and example is pattaya klang heading towards the 3rd road lights, you get a constant stream of bike and the odd car in the outside lane (wrong side) trying to pass the waiting traffic and make a right turn, seen many accidents and near misses were people are coming from side roads on the left and moving through the stationary traffic to turn right towards beach road - they simply fail to look right not expecting any traffic to be on the wrong side..............extremely dangerous.

What this country needs are a series of road traffic awareness clips on public TV informing people of some basic priciples and also how they will be enforced, they do it in the west - road safety education followed by proper traffic law enforcement.

[Fgis]

They are weird.

Always keep some lawyers namecards in your wallet to show them that you are not alone.

I also heard that they check drug in day time (checkpiss) for drivers, do you know where exactly ?

[Jayman]

They are weird.

Always keep some lawyers namecards in your wallet to show them that you are not alone.

I also heard that they check drug in day time (checkpiss) for drivers, do you know where exactly ?

Are you asking where they setup random check points and check for drug users? Think these locations change or the word would get out to other drug users (like yourself) and they would be avoided rather quickly.

As for the OP, I have seen others do exactly what your mate did and I for one am glad they are clamping down on this practice (if even just temporarily). He was driving the wrong way, period. Not just illegal u-turn. And to pull of what he did is very dangerous for the other drivers on the sukumvit.

I'm just glad to hear that he was not singled out a farang but that all drivers seen doing this at the time were all taken away to be processed and fine. Good job for the BIB. I wish they did more of this and much more regularly. Only then would drivers start to realize they need to follow the rules even if that means they have to inconvenience themselves an extra few minutes on the road.

[TongueThaied]

There is a big push on driving on the wrong side of the road, or in the wrong direction at the moment.

It is one of the highest causes of road fatalities in Thailand, and when people learn about this from others hopefully people will start driving properly and with more consideration to other road users.

I wish they'd jail those B**tards that cut in on long queue's too!

This is terrible! I love being able to drive on the wrong side. (Well, if you want to get technical, everybody is driving on the "wrong" side here -- thanks to British influence)

[poanoi]

Based on my own terrifying experience over the course of 10 years,

i'm betting lane cutting, U-turns, and red light crossing causes more accidents

Edited November 2, 2012 by poanoi

[Jayman]

Based on my own terrifying experience over the course of 10 years,

i'm betting lane cutting, U-turns, and red light crossing causes more accidents

I agree 100%. And the fact that the guy mentioned in the OP has been here so long and licensed here in Thailand just makes me think even more that he should have been held in jail without bail. Just cause you live here doesn't mean you have to follow suit with the many ignorant things you see going on here.

[Boca]

In regards to the events at the cop shop and the courts, what the OP described is similar to my own experience at new year.

I was stopped at a check point and failed the breath test. I blew 0.7 and 0.5 is the legal limit. The cops wait until they can load up a pickup truck of offenders then we were all taken down to soi 9 farangs and thais together. No chance for anyone to bribe this away. Once there they take your phone and put everyone in one large holding cell, guys and girls mixed. You soon get talking with other inmates and you realize you need to get hold of a friend who can come down and bail you out. The cops certainly aren't telling anybody whats going on and seems they thrive on the confusion. I needed to bribe a cop to get a use of my phone and called my friend. He then had to go get my passport from my house and went to the ATM. Bail at that time was 20,000.

After being locked up for about 6 or 7 hours they started calling names one by one to let people out. I thought that was game over but they give you a receipt for bail money and it was told we all have a court appearance the following day at 0900. That day we had to go to the court building at the ass end of Jomtien, wait around for about 2 hours to sign one bit of paper and then we are told to go to the other court at Pratumnak. After sitting around another 2 hours our group was all called into the building and asked to sit on the floor in a holding area. You sit around and get shuffled from room to room, mostly just standing about or sitting on the floor until eventually a cop will start calling names and telling you how much your fine or charge is. Most were around 2000 - 3000 THB. To settle that charge, get your receipt, get back to soi 9 to get your passport made the court appearance date about 10 - 11 hours in length. Oh, and you have to go back to soi 9 the next morning to get a cheque to get your bail refunded, which was another half day to sort that out.

All in all, an experience you want to avoid. I applaud the effort to improve the road safety and charge guilty offenders but judging by the process in the cop shop and at the court it has the appearance that it is the first time they have ever locked anyone up and charged them. Chaos reigns and nobody there at the cop shop or in the court seemed to know what was going on.

[robblok]

In regards to the events at the cop shop and the courts, what the OP described is similar to my own experience at new year.

I was stopped at a check point and failed the breath test. I blew 0.7 and 0.5 is the legal limit. The cops wait until they can load up a pickup truck of offenders then we were all taken down to soi 9 farangs and thais together. No chance for anyone to bribe this away. Once there they take your phone and put everyone in one large holding cell, guys and girls mixed. You soon get talking with other inmates and you realize you need to get hold of a friend who can come down and bail you out. The cops certainly aren't telling anybody whats going on and seems they thrive on the confusion. I needed to bribe a cop to get a use of my phone and called my friend. He then had to go get my passport from my house and went to the ATM. Bail at that time was 20,000.

After being locked up for about 6 or 7 hours they started calling names one by one to let people out. I thought that was game over but they give you a receipt for bail money and it was told we all have a court appearance the following day at 0900. That day we had to go to the court building at the ass end of Jomtien, wait around for about 2 hours to sign one bit of paper and then we are told to go to the other court at Pratumnak. After sitting around another 2 hours our group was all called into the building and asked to sit on the floor in a holding area. You sit around and get shuffled from room to room, mostly just standing about or sitting on the floor until eventually a cop will start calling names and telling you how much your fine or charge is. Most were around 2000 - 3000 THB. To settle that charge, get your receipt, get back to soi 9 to get your passport made the court appearance date about 10 - 11 hours in length. Oh, and you have to go back to soi 9 the next morning to get a cheque to get your bail refunded, which was another half day to sort that out.

All in all, an experience you want to avoid. I applaud the effort to improve the road safety and charge guilty offenders but judging by the process in the cop shop and at the court it has the appearance that it is the first time they have ever locked anyone up and charged them. Chaos reigns and nobody there at the cop shop or in the court seemed to know what was going on.

Great story and im happy they are locking up drunk drivers. Recently seen cops grabbing loads of people going the wrong way here in the outskirts of BKK. I thought they wanted to stop me but it soon became apparent they stopped people going the wrong way. They were standing there all lights off near a u turn. Also seen them there in the afternoon. Seems that everywhere they are starting to become a bit tougher.

[manarak]

a crackdown on "wrong way drivers in pattaya" had been announced earlier.

Maybe this is what a crackdown looks like.

[Jayman]

Great story and im happy they are locking up drunk drivers. Recently seen cops grabbing loads of people going the wrong way here in the outskirts of BKK. I thought they wanted to stop me but it soon became apparent they stopped people going the wrong way. They were standing there all lights off near a u turn. Also seen them there in the afternoon. Seems that everywhere they are starting to become a bit tougher.

Good.. hope this becomes the norm.