What's new in traffic law: Seatbelts & pay tickets or else
Section 44: Wear your seat belt or get ticket, pay ticket or no car registration, park illegally & have car locked or towed, then pay to get car back.
Section 44: Wear your seat belt or get ticket, pay ticket or no car registration, park illegally & have car locked or towed, then pay to get car back.
TRAFFIC LAW ENFORCEMENT
What's new in trafffic law: Seatbelts & pay your traffic tickets
Sometimes new laws come as a surprise because you thought it already was a law.
First, all car passengers will now required to buckle up in Thailand. This has been an enforced law in western countries for a very long time.
Second, all motorists who get a traffic ticket for a traffic violation in Thailand will now be required to pay the ticket. Who would have thought that motorists could just opt not to pay their tickets and get away with it.
Third, if you illegally park your car, it may be towed and you will have to pay a fine to the garage get your car returned to you. Paying the garage owner will not be optional like ticket payments.
Outside Union Mall in the Chatuchak area. Sign says cars and motorcycles are forbidden from parking there, but they park there anyway because nothing will happen, if they do park there.
Several amendments have been made to the Land Traffic Act by an order of National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) chairman Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha under Section 44 of the interim charter.
FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT
The law has been amended to require the drivers of vehicles to fasten their seat belts and make sure all passengers buckle up as well.
Drivers who fail to fasten their seatbelts and make sure that everyone in their vehicle has fastened their seatbelts will receive a traffic ticket and be fined.
And they will not be able to ignore the ticket as so many usually do, because laws have changed to force people to pay their traffic tickets.
Traffic ticket on a vehicle, a site rarely seen in Bangkok (Source: Wikipedia)
IF YOU DO NOT PAY YOUR TRAFFIC TICKET, YOU CANNOT REGISTER YOUR CAR
An amendment was also made to empower traffic law enforcement officials to notify the driver or owner of a vehicle who has been issued a ticket for violating the law to pay the fine within 15 days.
If the driver or owner of the vehicle does not pay the fine in time, the traffic police must send a letter advising the vehicle registrar to order the violator to pay the fine within 30 days.
If the driver or owner of the vehicle still does not pay the fine, a legal case will be filed with a court and the vehicle registrar will not extend the vehicle's annual registration until the payment is made.
Motorists who refuse to pay or do not properly pay traffic tickets will, from now on, will not have their annual car registrations renewed.
The small maneuverable low cost vehicles used by parking attendants in San Francisco to issue tickets (Source: Wikipedia)
WHEN WILL DEADBEAT DRIVERS FINALLY PAY ALL THEIR TICKETS?
The new law means that the motorists will continue to be fined if they continue driving their cars without their registrations being renewed.
But this obviously raises the question of whether a deadbeat driver could game the system and continue to accumulate traffic tickets forever.
Will there not be some even more severe punishment that will make deadbeat drivers pay all their accumulated traffic tickets.
Wheel clamp on an illegally parked vehicle that will now be removed until a fine is paid (Source: Wikipedia)
TOW OR LOCKUP ILLEGALLY PARKED VEHICLES
The law was also amended to empower traffic police officers or persons authorised by them to remove a vehicle which has been parked in violation of the Land Traffic Act [that is tow the vehicle away and keep it at some garage until the violator pays a fee] or to use some devices [called a wheel clamp, see above] to lock it up to prevent it from being removed.
The driver or owner of the vehicle is required to pay the removal or lock up cost, and for the upkeep of the vehicle while in the care of the traffic police.
Illegally parked vehicle being towed in Ireland (Source: Wikipedia).
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1219186/all-car-passengers-now-required-to-buckle-up
http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/transpo/2017/03/22/junta-wields-absolute-power-time-require-seat-belts/
http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/new-measure-deal-motorists-refuse-pay-traffic-tickets/
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/974709-new-measure-to-deal-with-motorists-who-refuse-to-pay-traffic-tickets/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parking_violation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_clamp
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