New Seat Belt Law - Fines for being caught not wearing

For those not living in Thailand, a couple of weeks ago a new law came into force mandating the wearing of seat belts in taxis and other forms of transport. This applies to back seats in taxis as well as passenger seats. Before this, I could rarely find the buckles in the back seats of Bangkok taxis but miraculously they have now appeared in most of the vehicles I have taken recently. If stopped - and another Board has mentioned police checks - and you are not wearing a belt that is functional, you and the taxi driver can be fined.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/gene...ply-from-april

I'm conscientious about using seat-belts and so I can say with confidence that the vast majority of taxis I've used In BKK have not had them available. And that includes airport taxis which we sometimes use to get to Pattaya. If this has changed....good. However, I sometimes have the impression that laws in Thailand are not exactly revered. I invariably have to request a helmet for a motor-cy ride, for example.

I think I'm right in saying the government has had to extend the grace period a bit. I am like you re the wearing of seat belts. I was once in the back seat of a car driving south along Highway 1 near Monterey in California when the driver had to brake suddenly to try and avoid an idiot doing a U turn. We slammed into his side. There were seat belts in the back and I was not wearing one. Surprisingly I only had superficial scratches, whereas the passenger in the font seat had severe bruising from the belt and had to spend a night in hospital!

fountain....i guess if u had children u wouldnt immunise them too...and u hug trees and save whales...

Oddly enough, the most excellent bus between Hua Hin and/or Suvarnaphumi and Pattaya has insisted that it's passengers put on seat belts (the waist/shoulder type) since their start up a few years ago.
Shocked me.

I used the airport bus from jomtiem , about 6 weeks ago .. and we were asked to use the seat belts ,

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Originally Posted by fountainhall

I think I'm right in saying the government has had to extend the grace period a bit. I am like you re the wearing of seat belts. I was once in the back seat of a car driving south along Highway 1 near Monterey in California when the driver had to brake suddenly to try and avoid an idiot doing a U turn. We slammed into his side. There were seat belts in the back and I was not wearing one. Surprisingly I only had superficial scratches, whereas the passenger in the font seat had severe bruising from the belt and had to spend a night in hospital!

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And what if the front passenger had no seat belt? Maybe a lot worse than bruising?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oliver

I'm conscientious about using seat-belts and so I can say with confidence that the vast majority of taxis I've used In BKK have not had them available.

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Presumably you are talking about rear seat belts.
I take taxis and motorcycle taxis daily. I have never had a taxi where there was no front seat belt and a reminder from the driver to 'belt up'.
I have however had 3 taxis in this past week with no rear belts ---- one where the buckle side had been cut out (what's that about).
Almost nightly the traffic is stopped for a police check but the taxi is waved through. Two nights ago the policeman shone his torch all around the rear of the car making sure that I was securely buckled up.
On the occasions when there was no rear seat belt, I cursed loudly and transferred to the front seat.

When the police DO see sand take note of someone in a taxi without a seatbelt is anyone aware ARE they actually enforcing the new law and if so is it an automatic ticket without conversation or is it / is there room for the usual "maybe you can help me" conversation to assist their back pocket as their pen just happened to run out of ink?

Mind you I'm not so surprised that their pens seem to break / dry up out of ink so often with the amount of theatrical waving about of them that they do plus the repeat hard tapping of same on their ticket pad over and over again plus clicking them on and off for the start of the fake writing on the ticket whilst they wait / try to get you to start the whole "maybe you can help me' routine with them !! I think some of them should be on stage they're that good at acting !

I buckle up whenever I can and my action is often viewed with incredulity by the Thais

** standing by for asinine responses **