Land Trasport Department strictly controls quality of public bus services

BANGKOK, 11 April 2015 (NNT) – The Land Transport Department is exerting its efforts to control the quality of public bus services to ensure passengers’ safety during Songkran holidays.

In just two days ahead of the festival, the department found that 81 out of the 23,500 bus drivers checked by the department violated traffic laws. One of them took narcotic drugs. Moreover, 88 of the 23,000 buses under inspection were not ready for service.

Their main problems were related to defects of passengers seats, side mirrors and windshield wipers. 707 public vehicles used excessive speed, 223 of which were taxi vans and 179 were coaches. At eleven checking points, 5,811 public buses were stopped for inspection, and 44 of them were found to have incomplete conditions but the problems had no impacts on passengers’ safety.

Hotline 1584 received 100 calls from passengers. Most of the calls complained about drivers’ behaviors including careless driving, speaking inappropriately, being impolitely dressed, abandoning passengers and taking in more passengers than limits.

All problems with bus conditions were solved immediately while drivers who failed to comply with safety rules have been prosecuted.

According to the Land Transport Department Director-General Theerapong Rodprosert, safety laws require all drivers on duty not to take drugs and drink alcohol. Those who fail to comply with will be given the highest level of punishment and will have to leave jobs. Drivers who have worked up to four hours continuously have to take a 30-minute break before taking another four-hour shift. After eight hours, the drivers must be replaced by a new one.

-- NNT 2015-04-12

And while you're at it guys, do something about those obnoxious black fumes omitted

by those old rust buckets you call buses,

there is no reason why that is so, and by fixing the problem you get to save on fuel,

wear and tear and the people's health, and here's the kicker, give the job to one of

your cronies that are already due for a big ticket government ' contract'

win-win all around....

How about doing brake inspections?

how about a fair ticket system and not force people to buy longer distance tickets then they really need?

Edited April 12, 201511 yr by kalbo123

Buses are of course the safest form of road transport with, according to statistics, consistently less than 1% of road deaths involving buses and other heavy vehicles.

I presume this does not include the crash master vans which I avoid unless there is no other alternative.

It's like telling a corpse not to smoke in bed and if you do we monitor it.

have to wonder if they actually did mechanical checks on brakes, suspension etc, no sense checking indicators as they never use them anyway

Are we talking about the world war 2 buses,the ones with boards for seats and no windows, but what happened to all that money supplied for the new ones ah...um....let's have a meeting

"In just two days ahead of the festival, the department found that 81 out of the 23,500 bus drivers checked by the department violated traffic laws."

Whoa, dude! You checked 23,500 bus drivers over the course of the entire day?

Like, how did you do that, man?

have to wonder if they actually did mechanical checks on brakes, suspension etc, no sense checking indicators as they never use them anyway

Come on seajai, who cares about minor details such as suspension, brakes or indicators as long as the headlights are working.............