(L to R) Banglamung District
Chief Sakchai Taengho and Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh, representing the
government sector, accept the unsealed documents from PBTA President Sinchai
Wattanasartsathorn and PBTA consultant Sa-nga Kitsamret, representing the
private sector, which is insisting the government implement effective safety
measures.
Phasakorn Channgam
Fresh from scolding Pattaya politicians for neglecting marine and
tourist safety, the head of the Pattaya Business & Tourism Association
handed city officials a list of seven reforms he believes need to be made to
prevent future accidents.
At the PBTA’s Nov. 14 meeting at the Grand Sole Hotel, President Sinchai
Wattanasartsathorn presented Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh with the group’s
demands, ranging from drug tests for boat captains to safety training to
directing regulatory agencies to take their jobs seriously.
“If Pattaya does not take safety seriously, the city will become just a
place that, once upon a time, used to be visited by large number of
tourists,” Sinchai said.
The PBTA president has been the most outspoken critic of city and
marine-safety officials, publicly rebuking Pattaya’s politicians and top
regulators to their faces at the Nov. 4 hearing called after seven tourists
were killed in the latest in a string of marine accidents. In 2013 alone, 11
tourists have been killed and dozens injured in more than a half-dozen
boat-related tragedies.
“It is time for the government to take this matter seriously by implementing
and enforcing laws on operators,” Sinchai said at that hearing. “The blame
cannot be laid just on boat operators because the officers directly
responsible neglected their duties and did not exert serious control to
inspect and regulate. The city has sat idle.”
The PBTA’s list of demands includes directing relevant
public agencies to “to work seriously and continuously” to improve safety
and not shirk responsibility by claiming other agencies are responsible.
The association also wants to see drug tests for boat crews. The captain of
the Koh Larn Travel 1, which capsized off Koh Larn Nov. 3, admitted he was
high on methamphetamines at the time of the accident.
Other demands included increasing the budget for safety training and
inspection, more safety training, and forcing the Pattaya Marine Department
to actually check all vessels for safety equipment, passenger loads,
licenses and seaworthiness. The ill-fated ferry not only left port 30
percent overcrowded, but lacked the required number of life vests.
Finally, the PBTA wants the government to check insurance
coverage of boat operators to be sure that, if an accident occurs, fair and
sufficient compensation actually can be made. In this month’s accident, the
families of each of the seven dead tourists are to receive only 300,000
baht. The families of two Chinese tourists killed in an earlier accident got
2.3 million baht each, nearly 75 percent less than they sued for.
