PHUKET: The speedboat captain involved in a collision with a Chinese tourist on a jet-ski off Patong had an expired Ship Licence, a meeting was told yesterday.
Chief of Phuket's Marine 5, Phuripat Theerakulpisut, said that he had planned to suspend the speedboat captain for three months because of the crash.
''I told the man he could not drive the boat for three months, and he burst into tears,'' Khun Phuripat said. ''So I reduced the penalty to one month.
''He was still sobbing, so I made it a week. Then his eyes were still very red from all the crying, so I told him to bring his Ship Licence up to date right away.''
The collision between the speedboat and the jet-ski took place off Patong beach on August 31. The Chinese man, Shen Baocheng, 27, narrowly avoided drowning.
Khun Phuripat said the speedboat's owner compensated Shen Baocheng. It's believed insurance covered his hospital treatment, ''but the tourist wanted more.''
The Chinese tourist, he believed, ''was just trying to show off'' at the time of the crash.
''We have to protect Thai people more than foreigners because sometimes our people do their best, and the foreigners still ask for more,'' Khun Phuripat said.
He was explaining his powers at a meeting at Marine Police headquarters in Phuket City to prepare for the coming tourism high season.
He said that the Phuket Marine 5 office staff of 10 is to be boosted by five new staff, meaning that marine safety ''will improve in no time.''
He did not elaborate on the improvements during the meeting. Asked later what would change, Khun Phuripat said that the additional staff would check vessels to make sure they were not overloaded.
More checks would be made to ensure tourists were safe, he said. The addition of GPS should help with the control of speeds of vessels around Phuket's shores, he added.
The Phuket Marine 5 chief has been criticised for failing to act to enforce the law in a major encroachment by a resort on a beach at Racha island.
He also once described an incident in which a speedboat sliced open the leg of a Russian tourist swimming at Kata beach as ''natural.''
Chief of Phuket's Marine 5, Phuripat Theerakulpisut, said that he had planned to suspend the speedboat captain for three months because of the crash.
''I told the man he could not drive the boat for three months, and he burst into tears,'' Khun Phuripat said. ''So I reduced the penalty to one month.
''He was still sobbing, so I made it a week. Then his eyes were still very red from all the crying, so I told him to bring his Ship Licence up to date right away.''
The collision between the speedboat and the jet-ski took place off Patong beach on August 31. The Chinese man, Shen Baocheng, 27, narrowly avoided drowning.
Khun Phuripat said the speedboat's owner compensated Shen Baocheng. It's believed insurance covered his hospital treatment, ''but the tourist wanted more.''
The Chinese tourist, he believed, ''was just trying to show off'' at the time of the crash.
''We have to protect Thai people more than foreigners because sometimes our people do their best, and the foreigners still ask for more,'' Khun Phuripat said.
He was explaining his powers at a meeting at Marine Police headquarters in Phuket City to prepare for the coming tourism high season.
He said that the Phuket Marine 5 office staff of 10 is to be boosted by five new staff, meaning that marine safety ''will improve in no time.''
He did not elaborate on the improvements during the meeting. Asked later what would change, Khun Phuripat said that the additional staff would check vessels to make sure they were not overloaded.
More checks would be made to ensure tourists were safe, he said. The addition of GPS should help with the control of speeds of vessels around Phuket's shores, he added.
The Phuket Marine 5 chief has been criticised for failing to act to enforce the law in a major encroachment by a resort on a beach at Racha island.
He also once described an incident in which a speedboat sliced open the leg of a Russian tourist swimming at Kata beach as ''natural.''
''We have to protect Thai people more than foreigners because sometimes our people do their best, and the foreigners still ask for more,'' - the foreigners would not be asking for anything if there were not so many drunk/drugged unlicensed criminal Thai piloting boats and jetskis. The sad thing is that these "old school" Thais are going to have a shock with Asean as Thailand is walking blind into it.
Posted by Fiesty Farang on September 20, 2013 12:34