Pattaya police tell motorbike operators to strictly monitor Arab bike renters

After hearing complaints of road racing and disturbances from local residents for months, Pattaya Police chief Pol Colonel Thanapong Phothi held a meeting with rented motorcycle operators at the police station on Monday.

Tourist police, immigration police, and Interior Ministry officials based in Pattaya also attended the meeting.

Thanapong told the operators to check the driving licences and passports of their customers before allowing them to rent motorbikes. The operators are also required to keep copies of documents to check in case the bikers created road disturbances.

Thanapong added that the operators were told to firmly remind their customers to respect traffic laws and to wear crash helmets while riding.

Local residents have been complaining that Arab tourists, especially Kuwaiti young men, race motorbikes on roads and rev up their engines to make loud noises in the early hours of the day, disrupting their sleep.

On July 31, Pattaya police conducted a raid on a group of Kuwatis at 1am and confiscated 15 motorcycles for disturbing traffic on Yen Sabai Road in Bang Lamung district of Chonburi province.

Local commuters said that they could not use the thoroughfare because the gang had parked their motorbikes in such a way as to block the road entrance as well as people’s homes. The gangs often travelled in groups and revved up their engines loudly.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Pol Lt-Colonel Arus Sapanon, from Pattaya tourist police, said police have informed the embassies of the countries from where the road racers came so that the tourists would be reminded to respect Thai traffic law.

Arus said in some cases, tourists who did not have a driving licence, had used their friends’ documents to rent the bikes.