After several years of talks on enforcing traffic-ticket fine payments, the Royal Thai Police (RTP) and the Department of Land Transport (DLT) finally signed a memorandum of understanding on Feb 8 to share electronic data on traffic violations and the issuance of traffic tickets by the police.
Under this arrangement, which comes into effect on April 1, DLT officials will demand outstanding traffic-ticket fines from offenders when they apply for annual tax for vehicle licence renewals but will accept payment of tax renewals as usual.
Under the new system, law-breakers still have the option to pay the ticket fines on the spot, in which case they will be issued with tax stickers to be pasted on the front windshield of their car.
But if these drivers choose not to pay on the spot, they will be issued with a temporary sticker, which is valid for only 30 days, after which they will be required to pay the outstanding fines or face further action from the police, such as confiscation of their car plates.
This measure is hoped to give the police some "teeth" to deal with the large number of traffic violators who get away without paying fines each year, including many repeat offenders, simply because traffic police do not have the manpower to pursue the cases.
The cost of pursuing each case is several times the normal 1,000-baht fine.
The problem is that most traffic-law violators do not pay traffic tickets. About 15 million traffic tickets, including 13 million electronic tickets, were issued in 2020. It is shocking that only about two million tickets were paid by the violators, and the rest were ignored, says Bangkok traffic police commander Pol Maj Gen Aekkaraj Limsangkart.
In other words, 92% of the electronic tickets issued for violations caught by electronic eyes were treated like rubbish by the offenders because they knew they would get away with not paying the fines.
One of the weaknesses of traffic tickets is that they are only enforceable a year after they are issued.
But this time around, traffic violators may have to think twice before breaking the law.
The new measure, in combination with the points-deduction system that came into force on Jan 9, will serve as a stronger deterrent against traffic violations.
Stories of some violators getting hit with over 100 outstanding traffic tickets every year should be a thing of the past, as repeat offenders now may have their licences revoked for life under the points-deduction programme.
The RTP are expected to earn substantial revenue from ticket fine collections, which they have failed to collect in past years. The challenge is how society can be certain that the revenue from the fines will be spent wisely.
Ideally, these funds should be used to improve the livelihoods of junior traffic police to reduce the cases of bribe-taking from petty traffic offenders, motorcyclists in particular.
A reminder though: Tougher measures will not help much unless traffic police themselves shape up and perform their duties honestly.
