E-tickets for errant city drivers in March

E-tickets for errant city drivers in March

Bangkok traffic police are due to begin issuing electronic tickets from hand-held devices in March, and motorists who don't pay their fines will not be able to renew their annual vehicle registration.

A traffic policeman issues a ticket to a taxi driver  at a bus stop at the BTS Mor Chit station. City traffic police are expected to begin issuing a new electronic hand-held ticketing system in March. (Bangkok Post file photo)

The new e-tickets would enable police to better enforce the law and make sure all traffic offenders pay their fines, Pol Maj Gen Adul Narongsak, the deputy city police chief who oversees traffic, was quoted as saying in a Daily News Online report. 

He said the hand-held e-ticketing system would be linked to a police database,  known as the Police Information System (Polis), and to the Land Transport Department database.

If violators failed to pay fines within seven days of a ticket being issued, they would automatically not be eligible to automatically renew their annual vehicle registration and pay vehicle taxes at the transport department.  Violators would be checked to see if they have any outstanding traffic tickets or have committed any criminal offences.

Pol Maj Gen Adul said earlier that only about 30% of traffic offenders paid their fines at the moment. The new system was expected to increase efficiency and transparency in traffic police operations, and reduce traffic offences in the city.

Drivers who committed the same traffic offence twice would get demerit points on their licence. And three strikes for the same offence would see their driver's licence suspended, he added.

City Hall had allocated a budget of 190 million baht for 1,300 e-ticket devices, as proposed by the MPB’s traffic division, and it would decide if the equipment should be leased or bought.

The MPB had proposed the e-ticketing project in 2011, but the city’s budget had to be prioritised for emergency flood relief operations that year, which had led to the delay, he said.    


Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (4)