Road safety crusader backs toughening of Land Traffic Act, urges quick implementation

He has also made suggestions for effective implementation of the changes. 
The former chairman of a National Reform Steering Assembly standing committee for road safety said the draft amendment of the Act was in line with his panel’s report, submitted to the government on August 30. 
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved in principle the amendment of the Land Traffic Act and passed it on to the Council of State for a review of the content.
Nikorn said the proposed measure to allow officials responsible for handling annual vehicle-tax renewals to deny or stall the service in certain circumstances, following a notification from the police – and to even suspend or seize a driver’s licence – could close a long-standing loophole used by many motorists to avoid paying traffic fines. 
As the statute of limitations for failure to pay a traffic fine is only one year, some drivers ignore demands for payment as such action never yields any consequences, he said.
Therefore, if officials had the power to deny or stall the renewal of a driver’s annual vehicle tax, as in the draft amendment, it would be a major deterrent to those inclined to evade traffic fines, he explained. 
To enforce the traffic law effectively, an improvement of the Royal Thai Police’s electronic traffic-ticket issuance system – by linking it with data from Land Transport Department branches – needs to be be in place, he suggested. 
“Whereas the Land Transport Department has the technology and a network covering the whole country, police do not have such infrastructure and most traffic tickets are issued manually. 
“So, if the government would allocate a budget to solve that and support technology linkage between the police and the department, the traffic law could be seriously and effectively enforced,” said Nikorn, who is continuing his panel’s work under the Thai Plod Pai (Thai Safety) Club. 
He also said that the requirement in the draft amendment for the owner or driver of personal and public transport vehicles to ensure that all passengers fastened their seatbelts throughout a journey was a good idea, in that it would hold them responsible for taking care of everyone travelling in a vehicle. 
He said such a measure should be implemented in line with a public awareness campaign about the possible dangers if passengers failed to fasten their seatbelts.
In addition, he said he supported another measure authorising officials to order a motorist to undergo a specific breath, urine or blood test to see if they were driving under the influence of alcohol or any other substance. 
Although it affected people’s rights, such a measure was good for public safety, therefore he backed it, he added.
However, Nikorn admitted he was concerned about the time it could take for the package of draft amendments to be implemented, because the procedure for passing a law contained some “bottleneck” steps that could lead to a significant delay. 
He therefore urged the government to consider the road-safety law amendment in an “express manner”, especially at the Council of State review stage and the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) deliberation stage, so that it could be passed within a reasonable time.
Meanwhile, although the draft amendment does not include the standing committee’s proposed “traffic court” or clauses on traffic-case procedure, Nikorn said he was not unduly perturbed as he understood that it was always going to be difficult for such proposals to come to fruition. 
He said he would, however, continue to promote the idea that a special traffic court could be a new division of each provincial court, and not an entirely new standalone court, as some might have envisaged it. 
In response to Nikorn’s concern over the time it might take before the draft amendment can be passed and implemented, Council of State member General Atthaporn Charoenpanich said the council, in its capacity as the government’s legal adviser, would consider the wording of the amended sections, the proposed punishments and the draft’s consistency with the whole Act – without changing the principle ideas behind the changes. 
“For a draft that was not complicated, it would require only two or three meeting sessions to consider and then the council would send it back to the Cabinet for further consideration,” he explained. 
“It the Cabinet at that stage refrained from changing anything, the draft would be passed on to the NLA for consideration and passing of the amendments. Normally, the council would hold two meeting sessions per week.”
As most Thais reportedly perceive laws as something they can avoid when the opportunity arises, without regard to the dangers posed to themselves and others, it is important that new measures aimed at boosting road safety should be in place alongside campaigns to boost public awareness. 
Vastly improved road safety is truly achievable if people are more conscious of the dangers and aware of the law, and if those enforcing the law perform their duties strictly – and not just waiting for a horrific accident to happen, and then reacting after the event.