Traffic police need to get their priorities right

Letter-writer Alf Haupt does not take my point.

Unfortunately, neither he nor Pattaya Police Station have got their priorities right. In a country with the world’s second-most dangerous roads, you do not prioritise document checks outside the police station. Instead, police manning the checkpoint should be directed at the violations at red lights going on right behind their backs. Or they should be posted in narrow sois to catch speeding motorbikes and cars on main roads. Such offences are legion and potentially deadly.

Meanwhile, the police checks on international driving licences that Mr Haupt mentions do not make roads safer. In contrast, national licences have English text, internationally recognised icons, strip-code ID, an infrared watermark and two built-in codes visible when you tilt the licence. The paper international licence is worth nothing in the land of fake documents. The national licence is the only state-authorised document that truly confirms the driver’s identity. 

Outside the Pattaya Police Station, foreign motorists who are stopped by officers might get tickets, but in more discreet locations they can expect to pay cash. This happened to me outside the small police station at the end of Beach Road in Jomtien. I asked if I could pay at the station, but the policeman demanded Bt500 on the spot. Fearing trouble and set to leave the country the next day, I paid up. I now regret that decision.

It’s time the police stopped defending themselves and started getting their priorities right to make the roads safe.

A North Country Man

Chon Buri