People not allowed to splash water down from pickup trucks during Songkran

File photo. Source: Wikipedia.org

BANGKOK, 29 March 2013 (NNT) – The Ministry of Interior aims to ban the practice of carrying water containers on pickup trucks and splashing water down from the trucks, for the upcoming Songkran water festival.

An Interior Ministry meeting to discuss reducing road accidents and casualties during Songkran holiday has set April 11-17 as days when tight control on the road will be implemented.

Aiming to increase road safety during the period of water play, the meeting agreed to switch from the previous model of using a central command center that issued guidelines to provincial officials to a model that allows provincial administrators to adjust their methods to best fit their localities.

Under the new model, provincial governors must lay down measures and guidelines for districts, municipalities and other local administrative bodies to follow and implement.

Every province must establish zoning for Songkran water play.

People on pickup trucks will be banned from splashing water on public roads, in order to reduce the risk of accident occurring.


-- NNT 2013-03-29

Oh my lord. This story is going to run and run.

Yeah sure. And in Germany, drinking of beer will be banned.

"adjust their methods to best fit their localities"

I see this as more detrimental and ineffective, especially here in Issan.

Another genuinely great idea that would certainly reduce the road toll, especially more minor injuries caused by bikes sliding off the wet slippery roads. They get very wet, especially during the dry season with the build-up of sludge on the roads. Water play should b restricted to walking-only areas or private residences. The problem will be giving it over to provincial govenors - will they have the will to enforce it? It will certainly stop some of the horrendous traffic congestion in many of the towns here. Took me over an hour to travel a few hundred meters through a water celebration once...let's see how this pans out.

I think the throwing of water at motor bikes on high speed roads should be banned in all of Thailand.

As for throwing it from the back of pick ups what is the point if riding back there just allows you to be a victim to streets lined with people throwing buckets of water at you such as we get here in Chiang Mai.

And how and who is going to enforce this one

Lets just ban Songkran full stop.

I think the throwing of water at motor bikes on high speed roads should be banned in all of Thailand.

As for throwing it from the back of pick ups what is the point if riding back there just allows you to be a victim to streets lined with people throwing buckets of water at you such as we get here in Chiang Mai.

Why dont we just "BAN" Songkran alltogether. we are becomming a police state slowly but surely.

Some politictions are paid to cover up the truth. Some are

paid to confuse the public. Some are paid to sell new ideas and theories!

Whatever the case, the bottom line is crowd controle.

Totally agree with this well thought-out, carefully planned and extremely viable and obviously enforceable idea.

3 words:

Not gonna happen!

I think the throwing of water at motor bikes on high speed roads should be banned in all of Thailand.

As for throwing it from the back of pick ups what is the point if riding back there just allows you to be a victim to streets lined with people throwing buckets of water at you such as we get here in Chiang Mai.

Why dont we just "BAN" Songkran alltogether. we are becomming a police state slowly but surely.

Some politictions are paid to cover up the truth. Some are

paid to confuse the public. Some are paid to sell new ideas and theories!

Whatever the case, the bottom line is crowd controle.

Yes because thinking of safety makes it a police state.

Its quite ok to outlaw dangerous stuff like throwing water at bikes from pickup-trucks or just from the street.

But hey don't worry it will never be enforced.

I think the throwing of water at motor bikes on high speed roads should be banned in all of Thailand.

As for throwing it from the back of pick ups what is the point if riding back there just allows you to be a victim to streets lined with people throwing buckets of water at you such as we get here in Chiang Mai.

Why dont we just "BAN" Songkran alltogether. we are becomming a police state slowly but surely.

Some politictions are paid to cover up the truth. Some are

paid to confuse the public. Some are paid to sell new ideas and theories!

Whatever the case, the bottom line is crowd controle.

Oops! Sorry for the spelling errors, my 9 year old give this message.

Get 5 people on the back of your truck, get fined and pay 40 baht each to the BIB.

You are now provided with a piece of paper to let you use the truck for water throwing for the rest of the day.

Everybody happy

Seriously though this would be a great idea if policed well.

I think the throwing of water at motor bikes on high speed roads should be banned in all of Thailand.

As for throwing it from the back of pick ups what is the point if riding back there just allows you to be a victim to streets lined with people throwing buckets of water at you such as we get here in Chiang Mai.

Why dont we just "BAN" Songkran alltogether. we are becomming a police state slowly but surely.

Some politictions are paid to cover up the truth. Some are

paid to confuse the public. Some are paid to sell new ideas and theories!

Whatever the case, the bottom line is crowd controle.

I don;t understand your idea of a police state.

would it not involve a police force.

Another genuinely great idea that would certainly reduce the road toll, especially more minor injuries caused by bikes sliding off the wet slippery roads. They get very wet, especially during the dry season with the build-up of sludge on the roads. Water play should b restricted to walking-only areas or private residences. The problem will be giving it over to provincial govenors - will they have the will to enforce it? It will certainly stop some of the horrendous traffic congestion in many of the towns here. Took me over an hour to travel a few hundred meters through a water celebration once...let's see how this pans out.

It is a great idea but I doubt any of us believe that it will actually be enforced.

Cambodia managed to stop water throwing in the tourist centre of Siem Reap - I can only imagine that Cambodian enforcement is somewhat better than Thai.

Ho hum!

The boys in brown won't even risk getting their uniform dusty by stopping some old guy burning stubble in a field so they are hardly going to get soaked by stopping a group of young guys throwing water from the back of a pick up!

Zero chance of success

Who is gonna tell Somchai he cannot do what he has been doing for the last gazillion years?

I think the throwing of water at motor bikes on high speed roads should be banned in all of Thailand.

As for throwing it from the back of pick ups what is the point if riding back there just allows you to be a victim to streets lined with people throwing buckets of water at you such as we get here in Chiang Mai.

Why dont we just "BAN" Songkran alltogether. we are becomming a police state slowly but surely.

Some politictions are paid to cover up the truth. Some are

paid to confuse the public. Some are paid to sell new ideas and theories!

Whatever the case, the bottom line is crowd controle.

Yes because thinking of safety makes it a police state.

Its quite ok to outlaw dangerous stuff like throwing water at bikes from pickup-trucks or just from the street.

But hey don't worry it will never be enforced.

Yes I agree water is very dangerous and should be banned during Songkran because it causes a lot of dirty people to become clean people.

Has anyone here ever seen or heard of a motorbike having an accident while getting water dumped on them from a pickup? All the ones i know of were drunks on bikes running off the road at night...

I think the throwing of water at motor bikes on high speed roads should be banned in all of Thailand.

As for throwing it from the back of pick ups what is the point if riding back there just allows you to be a victim to streets lined with people throwing buckets of water at you such as we get here in Chiang Mai.

Why dont we just "BAN" Songkran alltogether. we are becomming a police state slowly but surely.

Some politictions are paid to cover up the truth. Some are

paid to confuse the public. Some are paid to sell new ideas and theories!

Whatever the case, the bottom line is crowd controle.

Yes because thinking of safety makes it a police state.

Its quite ok to outlaw dangerous stuff like throwing water at bikes from pickup-trucks or just from the street.

But hey don't worry it will never be enforced.

Yes I agree water is very dangerous and should be banned during Songkran because it causes a lot of dirty people to become clean people.

Songkran is fun,unfortunately some people with or without alcohol don't seem to understand that throwing water at moving motorbikes is a bad idea. So yes I am all for banning that sort of things. It would be better if people could think for themselves and such laws or bans were not needed. Unfortunately that is not the case.

I think songkran is great but i have nothing against some rules to make sure the death toll keeps going down. Serious alcohol checks would be high on my list too, but like i said with my first post no rules will be enforced.

Has anyone here ever seen or heard of a motorbike having an accident while getting water dumped on them from a pickup? All the ones i know of were drunks on bikes running off the road at night...

I almost made a crash when some idiot threw a bucket off water on me while passing. Granted that was not from a pickup. I seen people crash on bikes after water fun and they were not drunk.

I think the throwing of water at motor bikes on high speed roads should be banned in all of Thailand.

As for throwing it from the back of pick ups what is the point if riding back there just allows you to be a victim to streets lined with people throwing buckets of water at you such as we get here in Chiang Mai.

Why dont we just "BAN" Songkran alltogether. we are becomming a police state slowly but surely.

Some politictions are paid to cover up the truth. Some are

paid to confuse the public. Some are paid to sell new ideas and theories!

Whatever the case, the bottom line is crowd controle.

I don;t understand your idea of a police state.

would it not involve a police force.

>Well, if you are unable to read between the lines, I'm afraid that I cant be of any help to you.

Has anyone here ever seen or heard of a motorbike having an accident while getting water dumped on them from a pickup? All the ones i know of were drunks on bikes running off the road at night...

I have heard of serious accidents on motor bikes at high speeds on highways by people throwing buckets of cold water at them.

[The Ministry of Interior aims to ban....]

Does merely aiming have the force of law?

Has anyone here ever seen or heard of a motorbike having an accident while getting water dumped on them from a pickup?.

Yes.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

Enjoy Songkran guys ..... as for the last 20 years I leave Thailand during this craziness . Did once , was fun but I hated to received frozen water on my head.

Is this really going to work? You have convoys of pickups in Chiangmai and traffic is in gridlock and it is impossible to drive around the inner city area. If you have the police stopping and booking every single vehicle because they have a bucket of water in the back then traffic will go from a snails pace to a complete stop. What about all the people on the side of the road with thier large bins of water thowing it on the road or the firehoses spraying mega amounts of water from the stages?

If they really wanted to stamp this out they should have started an adverstising campaign 6 months ago outlining the intentions and not 14 days prior to the event.

If this does work all I can see is the reduction of all the pretty little things in wet T Shirts and that will be ashame. I came to Thailand for Songkran and all the dripping wet young ladies.

so if i throw it upwards or sideways its allowed ,cannot throw down

Has anyone here ever seen or heard of a motorbike having an accident while getting water dumped on them from a pickup? All the ones i know of were drunks on bikes running off the road at night...

I have heard of serious accidents on motor bikes at high speeds on highways by people throwing buckets of cold water at them.

Hitting a motor bike at high speed with a bucket of water on a highway. Give that man a teddy bear, bloody good shot. In Chiangmai the bikes are crawling along at walking pace through the traffic, it is even hard to walk at a decent pace through the gridlock.