Pattaya Police are utilising the power of the press to get their road safety messages across to the general public. Journalists and other members of the media being invited to observe and report on the activities of the fine boys in brown as they set up extra traffic checkpoints across the region.
In Na Jomtien near Pattaya the highway traffic officers assisted by Pattaya police volunteers set up checkpoints at the crossroads by the region 2 Prosecutors building a place for reasons I won't go into I know very well. The crossroads is a busy spot with the main road to Huay Yai district crossing the multi lane Chonburi to Sattahip Sukhumvit Road highway.
The police are on the look out for motorcyclists and their passengers riding without helmets and peering through windows to spot motorists too lazy to click on their seat belts. When a stop is made paperwork is scrutinised, registration documents, driving licences and the like.
Whilst the journalists were there one motorist whose breath seemed to suggest that more attention was warranted. He was asked to blow into a breathalyser which suggested that he may have partaken of Seang Som rather than Som Tam. A group of teenage motorcyclists were pulled up for a chat. They turned out to be clean and their paperwork even cleaner.
