Pattaya official defends swim buoys

[Rimmer]

Pattaya official defends swim buoys

PATTAYA:--Pattaya officials defended the city’s new swimming-area buoys, saying the red-and-white floats were tested strenuously and blamed buoy-related accidents on drunk, careless and out-of-shape tourists.

Anucha Luangmuang, head of the Sea Disaster Prevention office, met with reporters March 28 to explain the decision to use the wide, flat pontoons two weeks after city hall spokespeople, city council members and Tourism Promotion Bureau executives were caught flat-footed by pointed questions about pre-deployment testing, the budget used to pay for them and who approved them.

Anucha said he made the final decision to use the buoys following extensive testing by engineering experts at Chulalongkorn and Ramkhamhaeng universities. The tests, he said, evaluated the buoys’ resistance, pressure and ability to withstand various waves up to 3 meters.

They were not designed, however, as platforms on which swimmers could walk. Several people have been injured while doing so and police blamed a recent drowning on such behavior.

- See more at: http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/pattaya-official-defends-swim-buoys-36637#sthash.JVqx3ZOH.dpuf

-- Pattaya Mail 2014-04-11

[slygeeza]

personally I would be more worried about being attacked by an overly sensitive jetski scammer then I would be of falling off those pontoons, but someone with influence seems to have really got upset by the new pontoons for some reason, maybe the people that had the contract for the old ones

[LennyW]

I guess now we know who's relatives supplied them.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[jackvale]

2 solutions being discussed by experts:

1- Spikes on all buoys.

2- Warning signs in Thai only.

[Rimmer]

Libellous post removed