Anucha Luangmuang, acting chief of Sea Disaster
Prevention, defends the use of the new swim buoys.
Nutsara Duangsri
Pattaya officials defended the city’s new swimming-area buoys, saying the
red-and-white floats were tested strenuously and blamed buoy-related
accidents on drunk, careless and out-of-shape tourists.
Anucha Luangmuang, head of the Sea Disaster Prevention office, met with
reporters March 28 to explain the decision to use the wide, flat pontoons
two weeks after city hall spokespeople, city council members and Tourism
Promotion Bureau executives were caught flat-footed by pointed questions
about pre-deployment testing, the budget used to pay for them and who
approved them.
Anucha said he made the final decision to use the buoys following extensive
testing by engineering experts at Chulalongkorn and Ramkhamhaeng
universities. The tests, he said, evaluated the buoys’ resistance, pressure
and ability to withstand various waves up to 3 meters.
They were not designed, however, as platforms on which swimmers could walk.
Several people have been injured while doing so and police blamed a recent
drowning on such behavior.
Anucha said the accidents weren’t directly related to the buoys and were
caused by carelessness by the swimmer, drunkenness, or a lack of physical
fitness.
As for their funding, the buoys were paid for by the national Budget Bureau,
using an 88 million baht fund earmarked for all of Pattaya’s 24 swimming
zones, he said.
Some devices have been installed and tested for a year and are still usable,
he said, supporting the decision to replace the previous round buoys because
of the new design’s resiliency, strength and reparability.
He acknowledged that accidents remain a concern, however, but said the
city’s only plan is to have marine-rescue officials warn and advise tourists
they see walking on the buoys that doing so could be dangerous.
