Sattahip police are
threatening to crack down on drivers of baht buses overloaded with too
many school kids.
Patcharapol Panrak
Police are threatening to put the brakes on
free-wheeling baht bus drivers in Sattahip whose habit of loading their
open-air pickups with as many as 30 school children has drawn the ire of
local residents.
Following a string of complaints about songthaew
drivers’ speeding, reckless driving and overcrowding, Col. Somchai
Sunthanawanik, superintendent of the Sattahip Police Station, said
officers will step up enforcement of Department of Land Transport rules,
arresting drivers and revoking licenses of the worst offenders.
Somchai said that while he believes the station has
always “strictly implemented” such laws, he admitted there have been few
actual arrests and many complaints.
The police colonel’s threat comes after residents
near the Thai-Austrian Technical College, Chonburi Agriculture and
Technology College and Sattahip Wittayakhom School all complained about
the feeding frenzy that breaks out among baht bus drivers when school
ends. Eyewitness accounts showed drivers were loading up their trucks
with 20-30 students, ignoring traffic rules and speeding to grab as many
10 baht coins as possible.
