News Forum - Patong tourists charged after driving unregistered electric scooters

[Wanderer]

14 hours ago, Transam said:

Well, please do try and control yourself, the thread isn't about spelling.....  

That's like saying travelling on a motorway is not about driving. Every thread is about spelling, no spelling=  no words - no thread. 

[Thommo]

21 hours ago, LoongFred said:

They broke the law, so there isn't an excuse. The rules apply to everyone not just Thais. Most accidents involve scooters either gas or electric. Electric scooters are relatively new but may contribute to more accidents in the future.   

"the rules apply to everyone not just Thais"    When they applied consisitently?

[Skip]

15 hours ago, Grant said:

Just to be sure most peoples comments here seem to have not read this story correctly?

These scooters they were arrested for riding are stand up push scooters ?

Most people here seem to think they were riding sit down scooters?

The point most people are making is where do you stop on registering a stand up scooter or a push bike?

The other sarcasm comments are taken as serious by most and we see jest where people are asking why haven’t they arrested non seat belt wearing pick up riders?

No helmets on Motorbikes?

Speeding Thai drivers?

That’s the point!

why are they arresting a stand up foreigner on a scooter?

Why do you assume that the "tourists" that were arrested were foreigners??? The article states that they were tourists and the police have not released their identities or nationalities.  Could they be Thais behaving badly... or do foreigners have a corner on that market?

[Thommo]

14 hours ago, KaptainRob said:

Australia & NZ were plagued by these LIME scooters and a few competitors >

https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/fd02acec0a4b12f98ffddb66e1272a46?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=1065&cropW=1600&xPos=0&yPos=0&width=862&height=575

 I did read that the 

 

14 hours ago, KaptainRob said:

Australia & NZ were plagued by these LIME scooters and a few competitors >

 

14 hours ago, Khunmark said:

Pretty sure I can see Flinders street station in the background there. E-Scooters are a great concept, and they are easy to carry on public transport. However, they are the natural enemy of the pedestrian. Until roads are designed with e-scooters in mind, it’s hard to see how they’ll gain a foothold in the transport market.

 

Was reading the other day that they are already becoming  a popular target speices for fishing out of the yarra river.  

[gazmo16]

I'm here in Patong and these things are being ridden around on the pavements and on the road by clueless tourists. It's only a matter of time before the accidents follow but with about 90% of tourists making no attempt to wear a face perhaps it's the thrill of which comes first, the accident or the transmission of covid . So many entitled idiots down here it seemsx

[billywillyjones]

I suppose they could charge them with some form of irresponsible driving but charging them with not registering a vehicle is ridiculous.  Nothing but a money grab.  However, unfortunately for the responsible drivers there are always idiots out there ruining things and same goes for motorcycles, cars, etc.

[shemozzel]

They had them in Darwin when we visited there.  They were all owned and operated by a single company and there were no private scooters.  There were certain areas you were not allowed to ride them.  If you tried to ride one into the mall for instance they would simply lose power.  They were speed limited and came with a helmet.  You just had to download the app and it would charge to your credit card.  Every night the company van would go around and collect them and relocate them to central areas and make repairs.  They did have a lot of problems with young tourists getting hammered and trying to ride them after leaving the night clubs and then having accidents but from memory I think they were planning to shut them down after 11:00 p.m. or something like that. And there were a few incidents of them hitting other pedestrians and crashing when they were trying to ride them with two people on board and causing a few problems with road traffic.  I used them a couple of times and they were really handy and a bit of fun.

[Jace666]

I'm using a friend of a friend's  bike atm , shes not sure if it's registered ,there no papers or a sticker, sure they will fine the owner, but will I get a fine?

[HolyCowCm]

13 hours ago, Stonker said:

The laws are readily available and simple - most are illegal, but as long as people use them relatively safely, which the vast majority do, the police turn a blind eye unless people drive them dangerously.

That's clearly what happened here - stupid tourists behaving badly.

Hi Stonker. We actually had an electric 3 wheeler that the mother in-law had purchased and then didn't want so gave to us, and then we turned around after that and sent it to some relatives to have as we did not use it. There was no registration required and zero for it, only go buy it and use it. Wasn't for any health or handicapped usage just was a mother in-law whim and go buy. Have you actually seen or can you dig up and post to show some sort of official document that says most are illegal? Would this be most because of a classification? Just curious to see, but not intending on buying one as we have many motorcyles at my home that are way too much more convenient to use. BTW, that 3 wheeled electric scooter was pretty torque', but the danger on that was you needed to slow down and not attack at a decent speed doing a semi hard left or right turn as this vehicle was not the the best as in well balanced. They all look to be somewhat the same, and there seems there is not so much safety regulations for how those are built and one needs to handle them.

So as I was following what you were saying, I did look to another news article. I think as you probably read the same one, in a different Thai news publisher's article it goes a little bit more indepth and shows some pictures of the foreingers and scooters in question. First off I am not really sure there is any real law for these scooters for the general public, but for a business and having a rental agreement it is maybe necessary? What is the line of ok and not ok.

But as you stated and we read, the first no no they did was being a direct danger and nuisance to people, and if they were in fact being that way then good on the police to interact. Who knows because they are Phuket police which are a little different of breed.

One would think the police seemed to have concocted the not having documentation for the scooters for they were clearly tourists? Anyway, end result is the police took the scooters and there was nothing more to it than that except for the tourists to pay their fine, and for the owners to then go down to do the same and pay for the scooters release. Sort of a money grab all around on all levels. Were they really arrested or were they detained for additional information? Or just fined on the spot and let go? TT states arrested, the other article says apprehended.

In CM for motorcycles years back, if you did not have a licence ( tourist or long timer expat) they might take the key and make you go pay at the station to get it back, that is if you didn't have enough for the ticket fee on you or if want to pay at the scene, but they would never load up the bikes and cart them away. Otherwise business as usual and still is to date for up here. 

Richard Barrow has an entry to electric scooters, but it is dated a few years back, so no real up to date help there. For CM one can see the scooters starting to be back on the streets as things sort of get back to normal. But also the popularity of electric vehicles here is also on the very noticeable rise with the Thai, and if it is still the same as before then none of these are registered by the locals.

[AussieBob]

20 hours ago, Grant said:

Just to be sure most peoples comments here seem to have not read this story correctly?

These scooters they were arrested for riding are stand up push scooters ?

Most people here seem to think they were riding sit down scooters?

The point most people are making is where do you stop on registering a stand up scooter or a push bike?

The other sarcasm comments are taken as serious by most and we see jest where people are asking why haven’t they arrested non seat belt wearing pick up riders?

No helmets on Motorbikes?

Speeding Thai drivers?

That’s the point!

why are they arresting a stand up foreigner on a scooter?

Because they were probably riding their (stand up) scooters on the footpaths very dangerously, and the Thai police was altered to the problem by Thais complaining on social media.  And they are ridden like that by idiots is all places in the world that allows them to be ridden on footpaths.  

[AussieBob]

11 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

Hi Stonker. We actually had an electric 3 wheeler that the mother in-law had purchased and then didn't want so gave to us, and then we turned around after that and sent it to some relatives to have as we did not use it. There was no registration required and zero for it, only go buy it and use it. Wasn't for any health or handicapped usage just was a mother in-law whim and go buy. Have you actually seen or can you dig up and post to show some sort of official document that says most are illegal? Would this be most because of a classification? Just curious to see, but not intending on buying one as we have many motorcyles at my home that are way too much more convenient to use. BTW, that 3 wheeled electric scooter was pretty torque', but the danger on that was you needed to slow down and not attack at a decent speed doing a semi hard left or right turn as this vehicle was not the the best as in well balanced. They all look to be somewhat the same, and there seems there is not so much safety regulations for how those are built and one needs to handle them.

So as I was following what you were saying, I did look to another news article. I think as you probably read the same one, in a different Thai news publisher's article it goes a little bit more indepth and shows some pictures of the foreingers and scooters in question. First off I am not really sure there is any real law for these scooters for the general public, but for a business and having a rental agreement it is maybe necessary? What is the line of ok and not ok.

But as you stated and we read, the first no no they did was being a direct danger and nuisance to people, and if they were in fact being that way then good on the police to interact. Who knows because they are Phuket police which are a little different of breed.

One would think the police seemed to have concocted the not having documentation for the scooters for they were clearly tourists? Anyway, end result is the police took the scooters and there was nothing more to it than that except for the tourists to pay their fine, and for the owners to then go down to do the same and pay for the scooters release. Sort of a money grab all around on all levels. Were they really arrested or were they detained for additional information? Or just fined on the spot and let go? TT states arrested, the other article says apprehended.

In CM for motorcycles years back, if you did not have a licence ( tourist or long timer expat) they might take the key and make you go pay at the station to get it back, that is if you didn't have enough for the ticket fee on you or if want to pay at the scene, but they would never load up the bikes and cart them away. Otherwise business as usual and still is to date for up here. 

Richard Barrow has an entry to electric scooters, but it is dated a few years back, so no real up to date help there. For CM one can see the scooters starting to be back on the streets as things sort of get back to normal. But also the popularity of electric vehicles here is also on the very noticeable rise with the Thai, and if it is still the same as before then none of these are registered by the locals.

When someone is killed by someone riding an escooter the laws in Thailand will be vague and unclear as to what to do. The matter will go to Court and the person probably charged with murder.  The resulting media coverage will force the Govt to address the matter ......... and 2-3 years later some laws will be passed providing some legal clarity - and maybe that long before licencing, registration, and insurance etc. is mandatory.    

Meanwhile, if you are an Expat in Thailand and you use an unregistered uninsured escooter or an ebike, do so very carefully in the knowledge that your seriously copulated if you hit and hurt/kill someone else.  And make sure you have the number of your legal/bail lawyers at the top of your phone list.  

As someone said, Richard Barrow uses a fold-up one to get around - on/off BTS etc and then the scooter for the local walks. One of those sounds like a great idea to me - especially if visiting some place that will require a lot of walking (like Siem Reap?)  

[HolyCowCm]

13 minutes ago, AussieBob said:

Because they were probably riding their (stand up) scooters on the footpaths very dangerously, and the Thai police was altered to the problem by Thais complaining on social media.  And they are ridden like that by idiots is all places in the world that allows them to be ridden on footpaths.  

If you look at another news agency you will see it says two stopped on Bangla road which would be the main tourism people street. Shows some pictures of them just after a barricade fence. Probably zig zagging, unturns, cutting in and out through people walking. Probably a complete moronic hazard with disregard to all..  

[HolyCowCm]

12 minutes ago, AussieBob said:

When someone is killed by someone riding an escooter the laws in Thailand will be vague and unclear as to what to do. The matter will go to Court and the person probably charged with murder.  The resulting media coverage will force the Govt to address the matter ......... and 2-3 years later some laws will be passed providing some legal clarity - and maybe that long before licencing, registration, and insurance etc. is mandatory.    

Meanwhile, if you are an Expat in Thailand and you use an unregistered uninsured escooter or an ebike, do so very carefully in the knowledge that your seriously copulated if you hit and hurt/kill someone else.  And make sure you have the number of your legal/bail lawyers at the top of your phone list.  

As someone said, Richard Barrow uses a fold-up one to get around - on/off BTS etc and then the scooter for the local walks. One of those sounds like a great idea to me - especially if visiting some place that will require a lot of walking (like Siem Reap?)  

Agree, and that law applies to everyone. The penalty for killing someone with any sort of a vehicle here could wipe your bank account(s) clean. Just look at the police kid on the unregistered Ducati who recently hit and killed the female doctor. The parents are asking for quite a lot of money.

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

On 2/20/2022 at 9:31 AM, Thaiger said:

On top of using unregistered and untaxed vehicles, police found the tourists to be posing a hazardous threat.

Isn’t the state of footpaths and roads in Thailand posing a hazardous threat to all pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycle riders? …… how do police find these?

[Stonker]

1 hour ago, HolyCowCm said:

We actually had an electric 3 wheeler that the mother in-law had purchased and then didn't want so gave to us, and then we turned around after that and sent it to some relatives to have as we did not use it. There was no registration required and zero for it, only go buy it and use it. Wasn't for any health or handicapped usage just was a mother in-law whim and go buy. Have you actually seen or can you dig up and post to show some sort of official document that says most are illegal? Would this be most because of a classification? Just curious to see, but not intending on buying one as we have many motorcyles at my home that are way too much more convenient to use. BTW, that 3 wheeled electric scooter was pretty torque', but the danger on that was you needed to slow down and not attack at a decent speed doing a semi hard left or right turn as this vehicle was not the the best as in well balanced. They all look to be somewhat the same, and there seems there is not so much safety regulations for how those are built and one needs to handle them.

As I said, the police turn a blind eye but that doesn't make the 3-wheelers or the scooters legal.  Plenty of locals use electric scooters, mostly without pedals so illegal, particularly kids going to school, and we've even got a full size Segway which turns a few heads locally!

They're illegal because they're simply not in any category allowed on the road, neither bicycles nor able to be registered, rather like the two wheeled Kubotas - not 'banned', but just not a vehicle that's allowed on the road.

1 hour ago, HolyCowCm said:

So as I was following what you were saying, I did look to another news article. I think as you probably read the same one, in a different Thai news publisher's article it goes a little bit more indepth and shows some pictures of the foreingers and scooters in question. First off I am not really sure there is any real law for these scooters for the general public, but for a business and having a rental agreement it is maybe necessary? What is the line of ok and not ok.

They've got no pedals as some of the sit-down scooters do so they're not even in the grey area of power assisted bicycles - they're simply not allowed on public roads.

1 hour ago, HolyCowCm said:

One would think the police seemed to have concocted the not having documentation for the scooters for they were clearly tourists? Anyway, end result is the police took the scooters and there was nothing more to it than that except for the tourists to pay their fine, and for the owners to then go down to do the same and pay for the scooters release. Sort of a money grab all around on all levels. Were they really arrested or were they detained for additional information? Or just fined on the spot and let go? TT states arrested, the other article says apprehended.

As far as I can see simply stopped, taken to the police station, and fined and the scooters confiscated. Whether that's "apprehended" or "arrested" probably depends on what spin the media want to put on it. i don't see it as a "money grab" - the tourists were just being a pain, annoying people, and the police acted appropriately.

 

[Stonker]

1 hour ago, AussieBob said:

When someone is killed by someone riding an escooter the laws in Thailand will be vague and unclear as to what to do. The matter will go to Court and the person probably charged with murder.  The resulting media coverage will force the Govt to address the matter ......... and 2-3 years later some laws will be passed providing some legal clarity - and maybe that long before licencing, registration, and insurance etc. is mandatory. 

The laws are clear - they're not allowed on a public road, end of story.

[vlad]

On 2/20/2022 at 4:40 AM, Janneman said:

If you want to cross a street you better use a pedestrian crossing. Otherwise you might be arrested for breaking a law on crossing streets. This law only applies to farangs of course.

Cross on a pedestrian crossing and you run the risk of being killed on it because Thais ignore them as witnessed last week.

[AussieBob]

35 minutes ago, Transam said:

Little off topic, was sitting outside my local watering hole the other night, I heard what sounded like a Honda lawnmower coming up the road, it passed by, looked like a kid's scooter with an engine over the back wheel, no lights, big noise, doing about 30kmph. To top it all, the bloke was wearing dark clothes.

Totally stupid, death wish. 

Mate - as you know, anyone who has lived in Thailand has seen such things many times - they are unbelievably silly about dangers and/or totally relaxed about dying.  I was once travelling at about 100Kph along on a highway at night when I thought I could see something ahead - as you know not as sections have lights - and of course I had 30% sun tint on the front screen (makes a huge difference). I slowed down and sure enough there was some Thai bloke flying along (well about 70kph) in the middle of the lane with the same thing as you saw - crappy old scooter, no lights, black clothes, black bike, and he was leaning over the front wheel - I flashed the lights a few times and he finally picked that up and moved over.  I went and bought some high powered halogen lights and installed them myself - illegal here - but over there you can get away with a lot.  There are some cars I have seen over there with heavy tinting on the front screen - how they see at night/rain is beyond me - well obviously they cannot.  When I got the tinting fitted the guy asked if I wanted 70 or 80 on the front (through the wife), I said no way - told him thru wife - 60 on side front windows - 70 on the back sides and rear - but 30 on the front - he was very surprised - and gave the wife one of those Thai smile/looks - silly farang    Did a great job though - about 20% of what it costs here and much better at cooling - but after that incident (and a not friendly truck driver) we limited night driving. 

[HolyCowCm]

1 hour ago, Stonker said:

As I said, the police turn a blind eye but that doesn't make the 3-wheelers or the scooters legal.  Plenty of locals use electric scooters, mostly without pedals so illegal, particularly kids going to school, and we've even got a full size Segway which turns a few heads locally!

They're illegal because they're simply not in any category allowed on the road, neither bicycles nor able to be registered, rather like the two wheeled Kubotas - not 'banned', but just not a vehicle that's allowed on the road.

They've got no pedals as some of the sit-down scooters do so they're not even in the grey area of power assisted bicycles - they're simply not allowed on public roads.

As far as I can see simply stopped, taken to the police station, and fined and the scooters confiscated. Whether that's "apprehended" or "arrested" probably depends on what spin the media want to put on it. i don't see it as a "money grab" - the tourists were just being a pain, annoying people, and the police acted appropriately.

 So you are correct so far as I don't see anything except a bicycle or for a 3 wheeler and so it does look like scooters of any sort are not legal on public roads. And odd that the bicyles all are required to have lights and a bell/horn and are required to adhere to the rules of how and where the way they are supposed to act and ride. Maybe with the pedal type E-Bikes, since they have a double purpose might be legal if have lights and a horn. Perhaps is the loop hole or exception as still can pedal them. So oddly now in a sense most all bicyles in Thailand are illegal without the proper accessories..

I did find these rules for bicyles by PTT and the Thailand Walking and Cycling Institute (TWCI). Click or copy and paste as an address. Even covers washing your bike for take care.

กฎหมายจักรยาน-3-ภาษา-final-28082018.pdf (ibikeiwalk.org)

กฎหมายจักรยาน 3 ภาษา อังกฤษ พม่า กัมพูชา - มูลนิธิสถาบันการเดินและการจักรยานไทย (ibikeiwalk.org) 

 

http://www.ibikeiwalk.org/media-publication/handbook/2019/07/11/กฎหมายจักรยาน-3-ภาษา-2/

 

Unless it has changed, it is 500 baht fine for riding a bicycle drunk.

[ThaiEyes]

These public displays of “police work” are quite laughable. A lot of the police work here consists of selective enforcement on any given hour or day or perpetrator. Yes if people break laws, they are responsible and should get consequences, but justice is rarely administered what would be considered fair and equal. 
Expats have to live with it and tourists do too. And a lot of Thais, maybe most, do not worry too much about the laws and consequences unfortunately

[Dedinbed]

On 2/20/2022 at 2:31 AM, Thaiger said:

Four tourists in Patong were charged

 

On 2/20/2022 at 2:31 AM, Thaiger said:

electric scooters

I like it , charged and electric scooters ..