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UPDATING All Day, Every Day
TODAY'S blockade was ended after an hour, just a fraction of the disruption caused by the blockade earlier in the week.
Original Report
PHUKET: Another group of Phuket residents blockaded a major Phuket road this afternoon - this time over a dangerous corner in the south of the island.
The locals stopped traffic moving along Chao Fa West near the Wang Talang jewelry store south of Phuket City and insisted they wanted to talk to Governor Maitree Intrusud.
Too many people had been killed or injured on a sharp curve in the main road nearby, they said.
It was a lookalike blockade following a much larger protest during the week that caused the biggest traffic snarl in Phuket memory.
Residents further north on the island along Phuket's main road, Thepkasattri Road, staged a protest over a brutal rape, snaring thousands of residents and tourists for hours.
The protesters wanted an apology from two 17-year-old twins who admitted to raping a 25-year-old pregnant woman. But when the police postponed the reenactment of the crime, residents in Mai Khao blocked both sides of Phuket's main north-south artery, catching hundreds of tourists bound for the airport from Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi.
As the blockade wore on, rumor spread that police from the Tachatchai station had beaten up three youths in the search for the perpetrators, before they apprehended the twins. That kept the blockade going for hours.
Yesterday, at a peace-making meeting called by Governor Intrusud at Phuket Provincial Hall, it emerged that two of the boys allegedly beaten up said they hadn't been touched by officers at all.
And then today came the second big blockade of a main road on Phuket within four days, once again plunging the reputation of the island into disrepute and raising again the issue of public lawlessness that harmfully affects innocent people.
It's not known yet whether the locals in the southern part of the island drew their inspiration from the blockade in the north earlier in the week.
The southern protesters said they had asked the Phuket Highways Department many times to reduce the dangers at the curve but had received no response.
It's the latest in a long list of blockades on Phuket where lawlessness is often the choice, and where tuk-tuk and taxi drivers have frequently set the example.
The tuk-tuk and taxi drivers have often resorted to blockades to get their way and in the eyes of many residents, set the example for others to follow.
Has anyone considered the possibility that it might not be the road that's dangerous, but the road users who are on it ?
Posted by LivinLOS on April 27, 2014 13:53