Lots and lots of police checkpoints

[balo]

"up to 50 km/h . Of course no helmet and nothing to worry about."

I know that sounds really bad, I guess I could always put on a bicycle helmet , but most of the time the speed is very slow and I stay away from the main roads.

And I don't drink.....much.

[seedy]

I know that sounds really bad, I guess I could always put on a bicycle helmet , but most of the time the speed is very slow and I stay away from the main roads.

And I don't drink.....much.

Ride to market, buy a watermelon the size of your head. At 20kph drop melon on road.

Then rethink the no helmet decision.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Good to hear the Police are doing their job and keeping <deleted> drunks off the road - hope he gets prison time.

LOL Prison time haha it does not happen just a fine depending on your reading fine is from 6000 baht up to 20,000 baht depending on how drunk you are this is Thailand and EVERYONE drives after drinking except goody 2 shoes like yourself and I mean everyone from the poor rice farmer all the way up to the Merc driving CEO and Police officials etc.

Right. Also, before the Thaivisa Court starts recommending that prison is in order, she had a blood alcohol level of 0.074, which wouldn't even be over the limit in most Western countries.

But here is Thailand with a big and genuine alcohol problem, but an even bigger common-sense problem when it comes to dreaming up laws and regulations and then enforcing them.

So then police manage to catch a 20-something year old girl on a moped who isn't even drunk by almost any definition. Yet she gets to spend the night and the better part of the next day in a shitty police cell. Thank you, thank you, thank you royal thai police for always picking the easiest target, making the smallest possible difference.

So anyway, let me update the topic with the outstanding information. She was fined 5500 Baht at the court.

Police then also offered her to 'forget' keeping a record of her offense and conviction, for another 5500 baht. She didn't want this to come up in any background checks (visa applications perhaps) so ponied up.

Oh what a great police force we have, "doing their jobs".

[Jdiddy]

Was following my new landlord's car carrying my stuff from the hotel when i got pulled up by the checkpoint on the onramp to superhighway south bound at central festival intersection, im on a near new yamaha big bike with no plates (havnt arrived yet)

landlord pulled over got out and talked to the police, the officer pointed at my aussie license (dont have an idp or thai) then at a paper he had that said international drivers license up the top), after a few seconds more talk they let me go

1st and probably definitely not the last checkpoint encounter i have, next one will go differently

[cardinalblue]

I looked at a number of bike shops but couldn't find a quality lock (crytonite) that affixes to the frame...

Got one in the US for $39...

[siamod]

Strange feeling tonight, i´ve been to town only a bit late at 00.45 a.m. and everything was closed incl. Zoe in Yellow and Spicy. Find me a few open places in the nightbazaar building. On the way back it seems police block the superhighway to check something. Just saw from far.

[Papayabokbok]

indeed....odd

[junglechef]

There's a crack down after all the cyclists getting killed by cars.

[naboo]

Planning a few beers watching the Championship play offs tonight, then a few more watching the premier league after.

6hrs of drinking then, booked my room yesterday, under 300B. Getting sensible in my old age.

[CMKiwi]

Yes there is a crack down on drinking hours. My other half has a small bar in the Zoe in Yellow area, and since the bicycle rider deaths the Police have been rigidly enforcing timings. Midnight is the closing time and the bars are not even allowed to have patrons on the premises finishing off their drinks. 2 nights ago the Police were taking photos of the bars that weren't compliant.

Even Tawan Dang was closed down last night at 1am.

A bit silly IMO but the law is the law and until its changed not much one can do about it.

[arunsakda]

Police arrived at WarmUp at 00:30 last night and shut it down.

[heybruce]

The drunk driver killed the cyclists at 8:30 in the morning. I don't think closing the bars at midnight will deter such a determined drinker, but then I'm applying logic to the situation.

[Loaded]

The drunk driver killed the cyclists at 8:30 in the morning. I don't think closing the bars at midnight will deter such a determined drinker, but then I'm applying logic to the situation.

I guess she was drinking till late, perhaps 2 or 3 am, and then went to see friends or her boyfriend. She left early (crash was around 7am or earlier from what I heard) and was driving home in order to be there when her parents woke. The alcohol was still in her blood stream and she would have been very tired.

I guess the thinking is that if bars are forced to close at 12am, drunk young people won't be driving on the roads at the same time as cyclists.

[CNXBKKMAN]

Crackdowns never last long but if this one does and bars close when they should people just need to start the night earlier.

[CMKiwi]

Crackdowns never last long but if this one does and bars close when they should people just need to start the night earlier.

Heck, that even sounds logical...but don't forget the hours permitted to sell booze. Not withstanding morning drinkies it's 5pm till midnight.

But that will never apply to the ma and pa stores. Too many of those for the BiB to police.....Thank God/Buddha/Ismail or whomever

[Puwa]

The drunk driver killed the cyclists at 8:30 in the morning. I don't think closing the bars at midnight will deter such a determined drinker, but then I'm applying logic to the situation.

It was 5.45am

[WorkingTourist]

I guess the thinking is that if bars are forced to close at 12am, drunk young people won't be driving on the roads at the same time as cyclists.

Or it is the broken windows theory:

The theory states that maintaining and monitoring urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking and toll-jumping helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes from happening.

[bangmai]

I did a few on Nimman last weekend, and the two cops on a mc came by about every 5 minutes. Like the place was under surveillance. This was before the bicycle tragedy, too. Yet, more reasons to use the home refrigerator.

[arunsakda]

It is not like Morality Police meting out the latest Fatwa. The RTP are enforcing legal closing times and I would support it other than the capricious way they do it. Big police up from BKK, cannot, next week OK. Pub open here, Club not open there. Until 00:00, 01:00, 03:00, who knows? Of course there will be places outside of town going all night as always.

Cops need a place to drink too after their shifts....

[true blue]

belive the 12oclock closing time,finishes tonight, and its back to normal for the places that stay open all hours.

[heybruce]

The drunk driver killed the cyclists at 8:30 in the morning. I don't think closing the bars at midnight will deter such a determined drinker, but then I'm applying logic to the situation.

It was 5.45am

According to "The Nation" it was 6:15 http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Three-cyclists-killed-two-others-injured-when-hit--30259251.html. I don't know where I got the 8:30 time. The cyclists were doing everything they could to ride safely--traveling in a group before rush hour and long after legal closing hours. Apparently there is no time of day when one isn't at risk of a deadly encounter with a drunk driver on the roads of Thailand.

I still don't think that arbitrary, and arbitrarily enforced, closing times will prevent such a tragedy. They simply cost people in the bar business money and make people's evening plans uncertain. I'm all for rule of law, but random crackdowns don't accomplish it.

BTW, the latest crackdown hasn't affected me, I didn't know about it until I read about it here. I don't get out as much as I used to.

[Tokay]

They are also closing the road that goes up to Doi Suthep from 8pm - 5am. For the first time in almost 4 years I was denied entry last night, even though we were just going to the first overlook to take photos of the city. It was 8:30pm. The a-hole guarding the road was barking at us like we were in the army and under his command. Never, ever, has anyone in Thailand be as rude as that imbred looking <deleted>. I wanted to choke him out and drag his limp body into the darkness.

[WorkingTourist]

I still don't think that arbitrary, and arbitrarily enforced, closing times will prevent such a tragedy.

More police presence and more enforcement of rules (i.e. crackdowns) might give people more respect for the law, which seems to be what’s missing in Thailand, see the broken windows theory linked above.

What else can they do?

They simply cost people in the bar business money and make people's evening plans uncertain. I'm all for rule of law, but random crackdowns don't accomplish it.

If the rule is that bars must close at midnight then surely the blame lies with the bar owners who keep ignoring this rule!

Most rules are enforced arbitrarily because there is not enough resources to make sure that 100% of people comply with the rules 100% of the time. Claiming that enforcing rules is causing rule breakers to lose money and an inconvenience to those who take advantage of the lax enforcement seems twisted.

[Throatwobbler]

Just got back from Phuket. No laws regarding alcohol are enforced down there. Even 7-11s sell beer after midnight. Looks like it's one rule for one and one rule for another.

[Chicog]

Just got back from Phuket. No laws regarding alcohol are enforced down there. Even 7-11s sell beer after midnight. Looks like it's one rule for one and one rule for another.

I've been told by quite a few indignant Chiang Mai Thais that the authorities want to clean up Chiang Mai big time and remove anything that detracts from the citys cultural identity.

But of course there will likely be a McDonalds on Nimman soon, they'll probably take over one of the two Adidas shops.

[Mapguy]

They are also closing the road that goes up to Doi Suthep from 8pm - 5am. For the first time in almost 4 years I was denied entry last night, even though we were just going to the first overlook to take photos of the city. It was 8:30pm. The a-hole guarding the road was barking at us like we were in the army and under his command. Never, ever, has anyone in Thailand be as rude as that imbred looking <deleted>. I wanted to choke him out and drag his limp body into the darkness.

But did you get angry ?

[heybruce]

I still don't think that arbitrary, and arbitrarily enforced, closing times will prevent such a tragedy.

More police presence and more enforcement of rules (i.e. crackdowns) might give people more respect for the law, which seems to be what’s missing in Thailand, see the broken windows theory linked above.

What else can they do?

They simply cost people in the bar business money and make people's evening plans uncertain. I'm all for rule of law, but random crackdowns don't accomplish it.

If the rule is that bars must close at midnight then surely the blame lies with the bar owners who keep ignoring this rule!

Most rules are enforced arbitrarily because there is not enough resources to make sure that 100% of people comply with the rules 100% of the time. Claiming that enforcing rules is causing rule breakers to lose money and an inconvenience to those who take advantage of the lax enforcement seems twisted.

Actually I'm all for effective law enforcement measures, such as random sobriety checkpoints to scare people out of drunk driving. Also, I could live with any rational closing time policy that is known and enforced. However randomly enforced closing times put bar owners in a bind, those that obey the law lose business to those who don't. In case you haven't noticed, the bar business in Chiang Mai is very competitive, strictly following the rules while your competitors don't can put a bar out of business.

Most rules aren't enforced arbitrarily because of lack of resources, most rules are enforced arbitrarily because the law is enforced arbitrarily in Thailand. Regardless of how they are registered or what they call themselves, places like Spice, Infinity, Tawan Daeng and others that routinely stay open late are bars, they are bars that flaunt the law with impunity, and they are very successful bars because of this. Do you really think the police haven't noticed them?

On April 14, the second day of Songkran, Rush Bar on Nimmanhamin soi 7 was doing a great business at 10 pm. The police came shortly after that, did a walk-through, and left without finding anything. However they came back around 10:30 and set up a roadblock immediately in front of the bar, with lots of masked policemen standing around intimidating all present. Of course the bar emptied out very quickly.

Not a problem for the customers, a short distance away Infinity on soi 6 was going loud and crowded until at least 2:30 am, when I called it a night, and probably much later. Do you think it was lack of resources that caused to police to shut down Rush Bar well before legal closing time while allowing the much larger, and presumably better connected, Infinity to keep going well past closing time?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

The drunk driver killed the cyclists at 8:30 in the morning. I don't think closing the bars at midnight will deter such a determined drinker, but then I'm applying logic to the situation.

She went to sleep first, but clearly was still tired in the morning. Either way it had nothing to do with bars staying open late.

So how about a crackdown on cyclists instead? They're hard to see at the best of times, and don't go very fast. So you have a major highway and then there are these loons peddling along at 5am, going much slower than everything else.

Build bicycle lanes (proper ones, not paint on a road), basic public transport at night along major roads out of town, and enforce drunk driving with stronger punishment for offenders. But no, a crackdown happens on something completely unrelated to what happened.

Anyway, if this country wasn't run in such a dysfunctional manner then I probably wouldn't love it as much. That's always a good thing to remind yourself of.

[Mapguy]

Yeah, well, if "dysfunctional" means a situation wherein such innocent "loons," as YOU put it are mowed down by a motorist, then life here, as you apparently love it, is not so "Lovable." Or would it be anywhere. Crackdown on cyclists! Pretty outrageous comment, Winnie!

[heybruce]

Yeah, well, if "dysfunctional" means a situation wherein such innocent "loons," as YOU put it are mowed down by a motorist, then life here, as you apparently love it, is not so "Lovable." Or would it be anywhere. Crackdown on cyclists! Pretty outrageous comment, Winnie!

I have to agree, these cyclists made a determined effort to ride on some of the few decent roads before rush hour and after (they thought) the drunks were done driving. They were also traveling in a group and, if I remember correctly, wearing reflective clothing. They were doing everything they could to cycle safely. It's pretty cold to blame the victims.