Thailand & Pattaya News, from Fabulous 103fm (6 September 2022)

Thailand & Pattaya News, from Fabulous 103fm (6 September 2022)

With many Thais worried that the Mountain B bar inferno, exactly a month ago, will be swept under the carpet by officials, mamy met at the site of the former club bar to mourn their losses over the past month.  Those families begged that the authorities continue to prosecute the club owners, currently on bail.   STILL no confirmation that the operators had NO public liability insurance has annoyed many, as Chonburi police chief confirmed that the electrician who did the wiring in the cheap built building has been issued with a summons AND reported to police. He also confirmed that the building was poorly constructed, using non fire resistant materials and had no fire escapes USEABLE. Meanwhile, families of those still hospitalized report that patients remain in intensive care 30 days after the fire, most with 90% body burns. Final reports from an inspection of clubs and entertainment areas in Pattaya, carried out 4 days ago, have yet to be released to the media in full.

Advertising or promotion of cryptocurrency is to be heavily regulated according to Thailand’s security and exchange commission.  Currently, millions are spent on online advertising, often using famous people to endorse a platform, group or currency. New laws will require advertisers to clearly state the risk involved and not over exaggerate potential profits, adding bloggers, vloggers and so called influencers to the list of advertising media that must be regulated. The SEC allows 30 days from today for all to comply.  Santins against coin platforms have recently seen an executive from one platform fined 8.5 million baht for so called insider trading, a division of the SCB bank pull out of plans to acquire Bitkub platform and Zipmex fined close to 2 million for suspending customer’s ability to withdraw their funds.

Yesterday saw the start date of higher fines for traffic offences in Thailand,  that though has now been put on hold, according to the Royal Thai Police, seeing the deputy director of traffic operations announce a 3 month delay, allowing the police to better publicise the changes before implementation. In HIS statement he also referred to the issue of repeat offenders, warning that fines may double for those. Under the new system tickets will be issued via an app used by police that links to a database, seeing all registered against driver names and licences.

Meanwhile, the official law regarding seat belt use goes into effect. Unless an armistice of this is issued too, from today all passengers, seated in the front or rear of vehicles MUST wear seatbelts or face a 2K baht fine. Children or those under 135 cm in height must be in either child seats or use booster seats.  That law has been long coming, approved back in May, and despite some vehicles NOT having rear belts installed, most if not all on the road now DO have bold mountings for them TO be installed as an aftermarket option.

Videos shared by Thai media show the effects of new drainage in Walking Street, which was to say the least unimpressive this week. The Sunday night shot shows the street, perhaps better renamed as WADING street, proudly boasting it’s new drainage and flagstones, flooded during and after storms.  With the balance of the rainy season expected to see more heavier storms than in previous years, city hall teams are expected to be reviewing the situation around the whole town.  Whilst no drainage system COULD handle heavy monsoon rains instantly, the issue is often blocked or narrow pipelines toward the seafront, seeing water backlog and in some cases come OUT of the very drains they are supposed to go IN to.  Either way the good news is that water clears faster than before, the bad, sadly, is that in some areas the drainage.. is a failure.

In neighbouring Rayong, Monday saw reports reach the media of a 70 year old British expat reversing his vehicle over two Thais, killing one and leaving the other seriously injured, before changing direction, smashing into parked vehicles and finally, flipping over. Alcohol tests were carried out and blood tests taken at the police station where he is currently being held.

Our region is listed, along with much of the country, in reports issued by the MET office that predict very heavy rain and strong winds through to the end of the week. The public was advised to avoid the use or hire of small boats, which have been advised to remain on the shoreline all around the gulf as waves of up to 2 metres along with strong undercurrents will hamper safety.

Power cuts on the east side of the city left many in the dark for hours last night.  As the power company worked to fix numerous breaks in cables caused by storms, so many were in bed before it was back on again. Sadly, the way power is supplied here often sees power surges when services are resumed and several people have complained to us already that appliances, from computers to air conditioners were fried by a power surge when the lights came back on.  It is always best to unplug appliances but for air conditioners, even if switched off, there is little can be done to protect them, unless you have surge protectors fitted to your home.

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