Elderly and disabled tourists who were forced to skip planned trips to Koh Larn because they couldn’t use new floating docks at Bali Hai Pier have been thrown a lifeline.
Following reports that passengers were forced to stay ashore or fell on the unstable, slippery docks, Pattaya City Hall launched a wheelchair service to assist them March 7.
Pol. Maj. Jirawat Sukontasap, head of the municipal police, said two wheelchairs are now available all day at the pier and a team city officers, volunteers and medics from Pattaya Hospital are now on standby to assist inform passengers to and from boats.
Until recently, passengers could board speedboats on Pattaya Beach. But when the military relocated them to Bali Hai Pier, a slew of problems ensued from the use of the pontoons, including slips and falls that occurred almost every day.
The result was a series of embarrassing posts to social media, that showed not only injured passengers, but elderly and disabled tourists who had to stay at Bali Hai while their friends and family went to the resort island.
The Marine Department quickly scrubbed down the pontoons to make them safer and stationed assistants on each dock to help passengers. City Hall then followed with wheelchairs and said more may be added if the current two prove insufficient.
