Fined 1000 THB for driving violation?!

[IsaanFam]

So, first time here that a cop stopped me because of a traffic violation. Basically, I didn't notice that I was on the wrong line and just indicated (a bit to late as the white lines were already like that) to go to the left and I saw already the cop collecting something from a taxi in front of me.

 

Then he was running at me after I was nearly on the other lane and he said to me with a big smiling face that this is for express way. Well, he asked for 1000 THB and I denied and he said go police station to get my license and pay the fine of 1000 THB. As I never encountered a real traffic violation thing, is this the normal behavior, I mean the 1000 THB? Seems a bit sharp to me.

 

I have made an illustration of what happened. The white "man" is the cop.

 

[poanoi]

a simple principle i follow is to never commit

a traffic violation unless a thai did it 1 second earlier

right in front of me,

that will cause the police to have to charge the thai also

in case they want to charge me,

and they rather not do anything at all in this case

[stevenl]

Yes, normal and official behaviour.

[Kwasaki]

8 hours ago, IsaanFam said:

I mean the 1000 THB? Seems a bit sharp to me.

Inflation I guess,  an incident like that 12 years ago was my first road fine in Bkk going to Don-Muang air-port 200 bht on the spot to nice policeman. ?

[Jip99]

 

[Briggsy]

Is this Rama 4? I sympathise as, unless you are familiar with the intersection, they are confusing (perhaps deliberately so). The police there are generally less forgiving and more predatory when encountering foreigners. Looks like it is under an expressway, maybe there or Ploen Chit.

 

Most Thai traffic legislation stipulates a minimum and maximum fine, often 400 (minimum) and 1000 (maximum). This policeman has seen fit to give you the max. I suggest

 

1. Try taking it to the police station and insist on receiving on a receipt even before you hand over any money. The fine may be reduced. If they won't receipt the fine, tell them you'll come back tomorrow and never return.

2. Ask to pay less at the police station. Often they will drop to 400 or 300 or 200. You never know.

3. Chuck the ticket in the bin. I have with some and nothing ever happened.

 

Whatever you decide, never hand over 1000 Baht on the street for such a minor offence, that is way over what is required.

[stevenl]

46 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Is this Rama 4? I sympathise as, unless you are familiar with the intersection, they are confusing (perhaps deliberately so). The police there are generally less forgiving and more predatory when encountering foreigners. Looks like it is under an expressway, maybe there or Ploen Chit.

 

Most Thai traffic legislation stipulates a minimum and maximum fine, often 400 (minimum) and 1000 (maximum). This policeman has seen fit to give you the max. I suggest

 

1. Try taking it to the police station and insist on receiving on a receipt even before you hand over any money. The fine may be reduced. If they won't receipt the fine, tell them you'll come back tomorrow and never return.

2. Ask to pay less at the police station. Often they will drop to 400 or 300 or 200. You never know.

3. Chuck the ticket in the bin. I have with some and nothing ever happened.

 

Whatever you decide, never hand over 1000 Baht on the street for such a minor offence, that is way over what is required.

"Whatever you decide, never hand over 1000 Baht on the street for such a minor offence, that is way over what is required."

 

Which is exactly what the officer said: go to the station, pay the fine and get your DL back.

[Briggsy]

9 hours ago, IsaanFam said:

Well, he asked for 1000 THB and I denied and he said go police station

 

11 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Which is exactly what the officer said: go to the station, pay the fine and get your DL back.

Try again, better luck next time. Are you a speed reader / skim reader?

[WorriedNoodle]

1 hour ago, Briggsy said:

Is this Rama 4? 

As it says in the photo its Pethchaburi Rd, looks like just east of the Wireless Rd intersection. A dirty trick by the authorities to fine this high like you say, as the inexperienced driver has to try and understand the poorly faded road markings or be forced onto an Expressway to avoid a fine??

[stevenl]

22 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

 

Try again, better luck next time. Are you a speed reader / skim reader?

From the OP: " he said go police station to get my license and pay the fine of 1000 THB.  "

From me: " Which is exactly what the officer said: go to the station, pay the fine and get your DL back. "

 

From you: " Is this Rama 4? "

From the OP: "Petchaburi Road"

 

Please read before trying to correct or ask questions already in the OP.

[Briggsy]

@stevenl

 

Cherry picking out of context rather than admit you were wrong. Tut, tut.

 

The OP says first the officer asked for 1000 B.

[stevenl]

9 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

@stevenl

 

Cherry picking out of context rather than admit you were wrong. Tut, tut.

 

The OP says first the officer asked for 1000 B.

You made the claim that I was posting incorrect, wrong. See my previous post.

 

Now you could also have quoted my post, but that would not seem very smart, since that post proves you were wrong.

 

End of for me.

[IsaanFam]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

"Whatever you decide, never hand over 1000 Baht on the street for such a minor offence, that is way over what is required."

 

Which is exactly what the officer said: go to the station, pay the fine and get your DL back.

 

Well, I did not want to say it directly, so I hid it a bit within the written text that the officer made 2 different announcements within a short time frame.

[Crash999]

3 hours ago, WorriedNoodle said:

As it says in the photo its Pethchaburi Rd, looks like just east of the Wireless Rd intersection. A dirty trick by the authorities to fine this high like you say, as the inexperienced driver has to try and understand the poorly faded road markings or be forced onto an Expressway to avoid a fine??

It's not  a dirty trick. If you've driven there you'll know that if you don't turn onto the expressway you'll be heading directly into oncoming traffic. 

[IsaanFam]

4 minutes ago, Crash999 said:

It's not  a dirty trick. If you've driven there you'll know that if you don't turn onto the expressway you'll be heading directly into oncoming traffic. 

 

That is wrong, the whole street is one way. You can even see in the picture that the road is one way. Well, I haven't driven there before and just noticed to late that its the way to the express way. 

[Crash999]

I've been caught turning from the wrong lane a couple of times before. Once about 15 years ago and once last year. I don't remember what was the starting point of negotiation but for the last one I was able to negotiate the fine down to 200 Baht. No receipt, of course. 

[Crash999]

1 minute ago, IsaanFam said:

 

That is wrong, the whole street is one way. You can even see in the picture that the road is one way. Well, I haven't driven there before and just noticed to late that its the way to the express way. 

Not the whole way. Go a bit further down that road (East) on Google Maps and you can see there is traffic coming the other way. Traffic from that direction is forced onto the expressway. 

 

The expressway entrances are all a bit confusing in that area because the lanes keep changing. On Sukhumvit it's even worse. If one is in the northernmost lane heading east or west one is forced onto the highway even though it'd be quite easy just to continue down Sukhumvit. Police catch a lot of people there too. 

[dotpoom]

On 6/20/2018 at 3:07 AM, poanoi said:

a simple principle i follow is to never commit

a traffic violation unless a thai did it 1 second earlier

right in front of me,

that will cause the police to have to charge the thai also

in case they want to charge me,

and they rather not do anything at all in this case

Not necessarily true. How many times have I seen Farangs with no helmet getting "pulled"...when Thais with no helmets sailed past?

[thailand49]

I've seen these stops at this location and location similar. They are making quick money on vehicles from out of the area and on people who aren't Thai! 

[Classic Ray]

Very poor road engineering, I don't know why the Dept of Highways don't install kerbed islands instead of painted lines, if they are really serious about directing traffic into the right lanes. They could start with temporary plastic barriers until people get used to them, and then replace them with concrete. Drivers are not very good at complying with lines here, especially when they are so faded, and old lines are never erased when new ones are painted to change junction layouts.

 

Of course it would cost money and reduce income for the predatory police, but it would start to instill good driving skills into the majority, something sorely needed.

[VocalNeal]

11 minutes ago, Classic Ray said:

Very poor road engineering, I don't know why the Dept of Highways don't install kerbed islands instead of painted lines,

 

They do I have friend who inadvertently ran over one! Broke a wheel. Much to the chagrin of the other 4 people in his car.

 

11 minutes ago, Classic Ray said:

They could start with temporary plastic barriers until people get used to them, and then replace them with concrete.

 

They do but extending the barrier or blocking the lane simply moves the chaos further up the road. 

 

11 minutes ago, Classic Ray said:

but it would start to instill good driving skills into the majority, something sorely needed.

 

This is the whole purpose of the new scheme.  

 

The main culprit is badly thought out or more likely not even thought about road junctions. 

[Tongue Thaid]

Yes well my first time driving in Bk approaching a toll booth not far from the emporium or Chang Wattana and as I got close to the toll booth realised I was in the easy pass lane so put the indicator on and moved over to the correct lane ,no problems,paid the toll,but as soon as I went to move off a policeman indicated me to pull over which I did.Then him tell me you chain lane,you chain lane,anyway he starts showing me all the Thai licences he had and told me I had 7 days to go police station pay fine,but he wouldn’t write out the ticket and unfortunately my dash cam wasn’t working.Then my thai wife starts talking to him and she told me afterwards that she told him we didn’t have time to go to the police station and asked if he would pay the fine for me.He tells me fine 1500 baht. Which I told him was ridiculous but sucker me paid it anyway.Bloody corrup <deleted>

[wombat]

''driving bad''.....1K fine...simple.

[NoshowJones]

23 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Inflation I guess,  an incident like that 12 years ago was my first road fine in Bkk going to Don-Muang air-port 200 bht on the spot to nice policeman. ?

On that road you are talking about, I was riding my motorbike on the carriageway where motorbikes are not allowed, I knew this, but I do not obey laws that I do not agree with if I can get away with it.

I have only been stopped by a cop once on that road out of many times, I said to him "OK, how much do you want"?  He said 1000B, I said "no way, here's 300b," he said OK, I paid, and he shook my hand with a smile.

[Dario]

To the OP: 1'000 THB might be much for a Thai citizen, but I don't think for a foreigner. Recently a top banker in Switzerland who was driving in a hurry to Zurich airport, crossing a double middle line and taking cars over several times on the right and "speeding" at 114 km/h instead of the legal 80 km/h was fined by the public prosecution department  to CHF 450'000.-- (four hundred and fifty thousand Swiss Franks) which translates into Thai currency to 15'750'000 (fifteen million seven hundred and fifty thousand) Thai Baht! My guess is, that in Thailand he would have paid nothing. So, think again about your 1'000 THB fine. If you can read German, here is the source.

[grkt]

Why did you stop ? Except at roadblocks, I never stop when a rat waves at me.

 

 

[Tacuisse]

To put things in perspective, I am going to be stung far worse for infringements in most Western countries. And I won't be getting a smile from any cop either. So I just pay up, and learn from the experience.

1000 baht = 40 AUD. Peanuts.

[stevenl]

21 minutes ago, Dario said:

To the OP: 1'000 THB might be much for a Thai citizen, but I don't think for a foreigner. Recently a top banker in Switzerland who was driving in a hurry to Zurich airport, crossing a double middle line and taking cars over several times on the right and "speeding" at 114 km/h instead of the legal 80 km/h was fined by the public prosecution department  to CHF 450'000.-- (four hundred and fifty thousand Swiss Franks) which translates into Thai currency to 15'750'000 (fifteen million seven hundred and fifty thousand) Thai Baht! My guess is, that in Thailand he would have paid nothing. So, think again about your 1'000 THB fine. If you can read German, here is the source.

No, not correct. He was fined 10,000 Franks (also for letting the car do the driving while he was busy with his mobile), the 450,000 Franks will be the punishment for his next violation within the next 2 years.

[Dario]

1 minute ago, stevenl said:

No, not correct. He was fined 10,000 Franks (also for letting the car do the driving while he was busy with his mobile), the 450,000 Franks will be the punishment for his next violation within the next 2 years.

Exactly, sorry for the misinterpretation. He paid 10'000 CHF on the spot. Still a cool 350'000 Baht. Better don't drive in Switzerland on your next vacation.

[WorriedNoodle]

19 hours ago, Crash999 said:

It's not  a dirty trick. If you've driven there you'll know that if you don't turn onto the expressway you'll be heading directly into oncoming traffic. 

Like I said, the 'inexperienced' driver maybe new to Bangkok (not the know it all type) should be given the opportunity to see the road markings, which are currently almost grayed over in dirt and tire wear, along with clear warning overhead signs far enough ahead for the traffic congestion to allow folks the opportunity to get in lane (isn't ever gonna happen of course) rather than have some opportunistic bib waiting on the spot.