With no working traffic
lights, this intersection of Jomtien 2nd Road and Soi Wat Bunkanchanaram
is a free-for-all and the site of traffic accidents.
Warunya Thongrod
Nine years after construction began, Jomtien Second Road remains
incomplete, with unfinished sections acting as magnets for
construction-related vehicle accidents.
While city officials have, for years, contended work is nearly complete,
the state of Second Road says otherwise. Sidewalks are a mess, holes
gape where electricity poles should go, and the busy intersection near
Bunkanchanaram temple is imperiled by non-working traffic lights.
“I’ve been driving here for approximately 2 months and have found that
the intersection is often littered with accidents,” said motorcycle taxi
driver Nopadol Sukhkhaeng. He said the “s” curve before the intersection
is dangerous, with drivers speeding through it and then crashing in the
unregulated crossing.
Most recently, he said, a 10-wheeled vehicle and car
that both refused to yield collided, then smashed into a third vehicle,
he said.
The Numan curve before the Thappraya intersection near Thepprasit Road
also attracts accidents.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome admitted that work on the last few kilometers
before Sukhumvit Road has been slow, but stressed that 80 percent of the
construction on Jomtien Second Road is done.
He said the non-working signals have been caused by delays in laying
underground electric lines, calling it a “meticulous job” and that
planning took a long time.
Meanwhile, the afternoon Pattaya Mail visited the site, there was in
fact one backhoe in the area, but not a worker to be found at 3 in the
afternoon.
Acknowledging the accidents at the Bunkanchanaram and Numan
intersections, the mayor promised to assign more traffic officers to
control traffic and prevent collisions. But he also implored people to
drive more carefully.
The mayor was less forthcoming, however, about when construction finally
will be done, offering no estimate on completion.