WHAT color you wear may be a problem in other parts of Thailand but on Phuket, there isn't a fuss being made about red shirted motorcycle taxi drivers . . . even if they are carrying or wearing bright new yellow helmets.

Hundreds of the helmets were given away yesterday to mosi rabjang at Phuket City Police Station as the leaders of Phuket's many communities added their support to the road safety ideal of all riders on motorcycles being obliged to wear helmets.

The crackdown by police on those not wearing helmets - whether drivers or pillion passengers - begins from July 1 in Phuket City and will gradually spread to other parts of the island.

In the absence of a network of public buses around the island, motorcycle taxis represent the prime means of transport for many people making short trips off the routes of the much slower seung tao twin-bench traditional buses.

Motorcycle taxi drivers still have some questions about the new, safer arrangements, but a new era appears to have succeeded a time when drivers blockaded the island's police stations if too many people were fined for not wearing helmets.

There may be motorcycle taxi passengers who do not wish to wear helmets, but the drivers are the ones who will be obliged to make sure their passengers obey the road safety rules. Fines of up to 1000 baht will be imposed from July 1 in the crackdown.

Phuketwan supports the Mothers or Motorcycles action group (MoM) that supports the use of helmets and encourages education programs designed to reduce the lasting damage caused by the excessive road toll on Phuket.