Driving bans for repeat offenders

Traffic violaters face tougher restrictions in an attempt to reduce Thailand's appalling highway death toll. The new regulations will first apply to public vehicle drivers but all drivers will be eventually covered.

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Stricter regulations of public vehicle operators will soon be in place in an attempt to reduce Thailand's appalling highway death toll. SONTHANAPORN INCHAN

Repeat traffic violators face driving bans

New van hub planned for Victory Monument

Amornrat Mahitthirook

Public vehicle drivers who commit repeat traffic infractions risk having their licence revoked under new Land Transport Department regulations.

Department deputy director-general Wattana Patarachon said stiffer punishments for driving offences was one of the steps being taken to reduce the country's high road accident rate.

For moderate infringements such as overloading of passengers and speeding, fines will be handed out the first two times the same offence is committed.

If the same infraction is committed a third time within a 12-month period, however, the driver's licence will be suspended for 15 days, while a fourth offence will earn a 30-day suspension.

If caught a fifth time for the same offence, drivers will have their licences revoked.

For serious offences such as drink driving and or driving under the influence of drugs, a mandatory 30-day licence suspension will be put in place for first-time offenders. A 60-day suspension will follow for a second offence, while a third offence will mean immediate licence revocation.

"The measures will be imposed within two months to help bring down the number of road accidents," Mr Wattana said.

Although only initially applying to drivers of public vehicles, he said the new regulation will be applied to all motorists in the next phase, though it wasn't clear when that would be.

Mr Wattana said harsher punishments would encourage drivers to be more vigilant.

He said speeding, driver fatigue and drink driving are the leading causes of road accidents in the country.

Over the past decade, an average of more than 10,000 people have been killed in traffic accidents nationwide each year, with another 100,000 badly injured.

The transport department has also organised training courses for lorry and bus drivers, as heavy vehicles are blamed for many deadly road accidents, Mr Wattana said.

The state-owned bus operator Transport Co plans to help clean up traffic congestion in the Victory Monument area by leasing land for a passenger van terminal. PATIPAT JANTHONG.

Meanwhile, state-owned bus operator Transport Co plans to lease land under expressways near the Victory Monument for a passenger van terminal which will be able to accommodate up to 1,000 vehicles.

Company president Wuthichart Kalyanamitra said yesterday the firm would lease more than 32,000 square metres of land from the Expressway Authority of Thailand (Exat).

The junta recently ordered all passenger vans out of the Victory Monument area, setting up a new transport hub near Makkasan Airport Link station.

It appears the Makkasan solution will only be temporary, at least for vans operated by Transport Co, and most of the vans will move back to the Victory Monument once construction of the new site is finished.

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