Tonight around 10 pm when I drove to tesco lotus I noticed just around the corner of the traffic lights from Theprassit road on Sukhumvit the police had posted and dozens of motorbikes were parked.Reason of course because the drivers didn't wear a helmet.Perfect timing from the police as usual because the busy market on Thepprasit just ended.For me no issue because I don't drive a bike at night.
The only thing that annoys me every time I see this is that at the same time out of all directions cars,buses and trucks are jumping the red traffic light and are allowed to do while there is a police force standing right at the scene.These red light jumpers are all attempted murderers but for the Pattaya traffic police it is more important that traffic offenders without a helmet,who only can harm themselves, are verbalised.
When these w_nkers in brown gonna realise what is more important,murders in disguise or people who harm themselves.

Yesterday i was behind a thai driving a pick up and many police were at the junction at new road and soi khao noi and he turned right and went up the road the wrong way and against the traffic and what did the police do............nothing, i think one of them glanced but they could have whistled or even got on a bike and chased him to tell him hes a twat and driving dangerously or something....there was enough of them.

The only reason they stop and fine motor bike riders without helmets has NOTHING to do with safety or common sense, it is all about MONEY. They have bills to pay like everyone else, you don't think they can live on 7K bhat a month in Pattaya do you? The police's job in the LOS is not to prevent / deter / investigate crime but to record it. The police do not prempt criminal acts, they only judge who has to pay, and if you are NOT Thai it will probably be you.(because if you were not here it would not have happened) If they implemented the law in full (as in western democratic countries) the whole system would disintergrate. The choice you face is simple, to be sanctioned and fined every now and again or be hauled on the rack in our own countries. I always put a helmet on for my own personel safety, (nothing to do with the law), and if you value you life you should do the same !

one reason Thailand is a third world country is because it has a massive welfare system which replaces a very good one, in the past if a person was unable or unwilling to work they could become a monk and live a minimalist life on charity , now able bodied men can join the police or army and make a living by confiscating money off those less fortunate then themselves while contributing nothing to society

And yesterday our self proclaimed "swat" team were having a roadblock on the 36 highway, just before where you chose between Bkk and Rayong...
As the ringleader is a rich foreign business person, one can assume that the Thai members are the same and have nothing much to do with a real police force.

Pretty nifty equipment they have though, reminded me of that movie bodyguard, with curly bits of wire sticking out of there ears so they can communicate with lord knows who...

I dont see why everyone thinks they have the right to knock the Thai Police all the time...are they worse than UK or USA or German police,err no I don't think so...have you seen the community Police officers in the UK? Are they any better than Thai noddy volunteers? (except Thai foreign, unfit, old volunteers look like fools, dressed like SWAT)

If the Officers in charge tell them to do a "check point" and check for helmets, then thats what they will do...don't get me wrong I agree they could do a lot of other more important "checks etc", but this is simply the same as other countries...too much crime and not enough Police.

Finally this is Thailand and why should we Foreigners expect our "standards applied" ??

Have a good day

Posts flaming other members have been deleted.

Wear a helmet that is the law

I suggest you read the OP again.This is not about police catching people who don't wear a helmet.The point is that they are posted in large numbers at the traffic light section and allow people who jump the red light,and are attempting a killing of innocent people,to do so.

i see certain logic in what they do which i think is "doing what they are told to do" so for sure the helmet stops seem to be just a money making activity but slowly more and more people are wearing helmets. more importantly every school day i see police sorting the traffic outside of schools (here in CM), they dont stop pupils for lack of helmets, lack of licences etc they ensure they get out of the schools safely. in this way the kids dont try to avoid the police and dont get flattened coming out of the school gate.
we dont do this in the uk because we cant afford to, in fact we have problems affording the old style "lolipop man" anymore. so my point is that the current pay structure over here including the fining of "offenders" enables a scale of resource not possible in the west

I don't know about Pattaya, but I think that the coppers in Bangkok do a good job of directing traffic and enforcing rules from time to time - the one I benefit from is taxi rank supervision.

The only time I've ever been pulled up its been for something that I have done wrong, which here incurs a couple of hundred baht tea money, in the UK would incur a five minute lecture. The tea money is just as effective a deterent - probably much more so for most Thais who seem to have more time than me, and much less money...

But the trouble is that when this is the way that your police force operates, it soon becomes obvious that the offences aren't actually necessary, and so they can collect money from people who havent done anything wrong... and when you scale up from a couple of hundred baht for stopping on a bend, to several hundred for driving through a red light, to a few thousand for driving through a crowded bus stop. And the coppers can't do the calculations on-the-spot to work out what is an appropriate level of deterrent for the specific individual...

So looking at the big picture, I don't think that the tea money is a good thing, but I repeat that I do think the coppers do a good job directing traffic, and I benefit from that every day

SC

When you ask a youngster they will say "rules are there to break"
If you ask a farang "if this was in my Country then they will not be driving again"
if you ask the police "I will colect the corps after it happend, better to sit down and wait, or collect money from motorbikes"

you are in a different Country so do not be upset if they are not doing the same thing as they do in your country.

(if the police comes to europe, they say "why are there so many Rules here)

This post has been edited by PTYstefan: 2009-07-04 13:49:31

More posts have been removed for bickering and flaming.

If you cannot keep it civil, the topic will be closed.

Agree!!

Time and time I see people on this and other forums knocking the police for doing their job basically because they think they are above the law and resent being pulled over and fined for not wearing a helmet.

I know that most of the helmets sold in Thailand are more a joke than give any real protection but that is no reason to break the law, I agree that there are many traffic offences which the police fail to act on and would like to see more done to improve road safety.

But for those who say "it's only me that will get hurt if if I do not wear a helmet" may be they should volunteer to go and scrape up the mortal remains of fellow idiot in to a body bag.

Yes I agree to what they are doing can be corroupt, but also as you can see even more people are wearing a helmet (not like 1-2 years ago).
But the fines and all the other things they are doing is to theach that it is for your own saftey.
If you have enough money to bribe them then go on. they will accept anything.

but still it is teaching you to follow the laws on your own SAFETY.

I got waved in because "No have Motor-Baie Sign" ?!?!
(turned out to be some kind of green license ID that should hang on the front but I had it hanging in a different place)
Anyway, next to me at the red light was a motorbike with 6 people on!!
In the front was a little daughter, then the father, then a small son, then the mom with a baby on her arm and behind her a second daughter - What a sight! - I thought it was quite funny that the cop choose to pul me in for a mis-placed ID sign when he had a family of 6 with no helmets on the bike next to me to choose from, so I took my iPhone out with the intend of filming the episode for my Facebook page. This really upset the cop and I was very firmly told to stop filming and put the phone away - wonder what he was so nervous about

So I'm sorry that I could not post the video here - cause it truly was an amazing sight to see.
(it was a bit like this http://www.treehugger.com/motorbikes-in-brazilian-town.jpg just with more people on)

its still a stupid post, how can anyone really think that Thai cops are doing a better job than US Cops, UK Cops and the German Cops? why would my post be deleted? that was my view on ths public forum about Cops. it was not rude or anything.

Join the club, mine was deleted too

more flames deleted and since this thread is turning into a discussion about who is stupid and who not as well as moderation issues, I follow soundman's suggestion and close it.