My first experience of the Thai traffic police occurred when I was lost in Bangkok (a frequent occurrence in the early days) and I found myself going up a one way street the wrong way. Apparently there was a sign warning me that this was a one way street, but the police had efficiently blocked the sign with a mini police box which served as a base for a number of cops waiting patiently for victims. As I unknowingly strayed into the capture zone, I was waved into a parking area and told I had to pay a fine for this terrible transgression of the highway code.
I paid my 100 baht (however much they ask for, offering 100 baht will do the trick), and explained I was lost. The cops became very concerned about my plight, especially when they decided that the route to my destination required me to cross a four lane road to a distant junction, an impossible task under normal circumstances. Five cops rushed into action (no easy feat in their uniforms which always appear two sizes too small), the four lanes of traffic was stopped, and I was ushered across the road with big smiles and cheery waves. A 100 baht bribe gets you a lot of service here.
Since then I have been stopped several times, almost always for good reason; although “being in the outside lane” verges on a lame excuse for leaping into the road and waving down a law-abiding chap like me. But the cops earn very little money and I don’t mind handing over the occasional 100 baht, and we always part on good terms. They got a little upset on one occasion when I decided not to stop and they had to send a cop on a bike to wave me down, that one cost me 200 baht. Presumably the extra was for the fuel.
Now we have a new law which the “boys in brown” as they are known can use as an excuse to stop motorists. From May 8th you are only allowed to use a mobile phone in (or on) a vehicle if you are using a hands-free device. Sensible law and it should be enforced, and indeed there are grand plans to ensure compliance.
In Bangkok they are going to issue 3,000 digital cameras to police to snap offending drivers who will then, theoretically, be sent a summons. The cameras will cost around 1,500 baht each which gives little confidence that they will be technically capable of capturing a speeding motorist, unless the policeman is prepared to hurl himself in front of the traffic to capture the required shot. In reality, it will be about a week before the cameras are broken, or “lost” or the batteries go flat.
The policeman carrying cameras have been told to “look out for motorists with raised hands.” This will be a sure sign that they are either using a mobile phone, or alternatively being held up with a gun. In either case, a quick photo will prove useful.
There are a couple of reasons why this initiative will fail. The first is that most laws here are announced with great fanfare and then die away like wet farts after a couple of weeks. Enforcement is usually not forthcoming, either because the police just can’t be bothered, or because they do not have the resources to do the job. In this case I suspect that 3,000 cameras in Bangkok is not going to be sufficient, especially as the people of Thailand spends most of their waking hours on the mobile phone and they are not going to stop just because someone says they have to.
And there is another problem, most cars in Thailand have darkened windows. This makes it difficult to see inside a car from the outside (actually, you can’t see much from the inside either, but nobody cares about that; if you hit something, the car will stop due to the laws of physics). The law says you can have 40% dark film, but nobody really knows what 40% dark really means and many people have windows so dark you could develop camera film inside if you wanted to. When the 40% dark law was introduced, the police were issued with special magic torches which could check the darkness of the tint to make sure it complied. Nothing happened of course and the torches were broken, or “lost” or the batteries went flat (I sense a pattern emerging) and the population continued in their increasingly desperate search for film that would actually create a black hole.
Anyway, in spite of all the obstacles, it is encouraging to see that the police are taking the new law seriously. Today I saw a policeman driving down the road on his motorbike, without a helmet, talking into his mobile phone. At least he wasn’t trying to write a text message.
Comments 🔗
2008-05-14| Billy saysNice to see that things are rather similar to Indonesia in Siam.
In Kazkhstan we woul occasionally “hire” a police car to put all his blue light thingsies on and get us through the traffic …. only for emergencies of course … like the beer getting warm in the Hyatt