Police set up a roadblock on Pattaya Second Road to check vehicle
licenses and tax stamps, and to remind people to obey traffic laws.
Vimolrat Singnikorn
As high season gets underway and the end-of-year
holidays loom, Pattaya Police are taking to the streets to remind
drivers to pay their vehicle taxes and hand out information on the new,
mostly ignored, pedestrian-crossing lights.
About 15 traffic police officers set up a table on
Second Road near the Hard Rock Hotel Nov. 5 to provide information on
renewal of car and motorbike taxes and the 42 newly installed traffic
signals, which already have become an embossing joke on the Internet as
drivers - including Pattaya’s own Tourist Police - are captured on video
blowing through the red lights.
Capt. Nattakorn Mongkhonmaha said many Thais forget
to renew their vehicle taxes at the end of the year due to the holidays
and travel back to home provinces.
Likewise, he said, tourists visiting Pattaya during
high season lack information on traffic laws, such as those requiring
helmet use.
Officers implored drivers both Thai and foreign to respect traffic
laws, including the pedestrian stop lights.