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Shen Baocheng was ''showing off,'' says a Phuket marine official

Phuket Boats Chief Applied Justice With Mercy in Patong Jet-Ski Crash

Friday, September 20, 2013
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.''

Comments

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''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

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''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.

You really could not make this up! unbelievable!

Posted by Terry on September 20, 2013 12:46

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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.''
Read between the lines....

Posted by Whistle-Blower on September 20, 2013 12:55

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oh good God - is this story real? Crying - sobbing - reduction of suspension. At least i know how to get out of things in the future.

Posted by Ciaran on September 20, 2013 13:10

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Ed, did you edit my comment?

Posted by Fiesty Farang on September 20, 2013 13:12

Editor Comment:

Your comment was moderated because we are held accountable for your libels.

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Leno, Conan, Letterman, watch out.
Khun Puripat has overshadowed everything you guys have ever done.

Posted by Hans Forssell on September 20, 2013 13:12

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Surely this can't be for real?

Posted by Remarkable on September 20, 2013 13:29

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Like everyone who has commented already, I am totally gobsmacked! This is not 'mercy'; it is madness.

A license does not prove competency. The guy has to be tested for capability & assessed for attitude. If he can burst into tears as described, then he has the mentality of a child. The lives of tourists are in his hands, whether on his vessel or in his vicinity.

Posted by Logic on September 20, 2013 13:50

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While filtering all the "noise" away then it is so that at sea the speed boat was pulling a para sailor and could thus not navigate freely...the jetski should have stayed away (clear of) from the speed boat, I do have a hard time seeing any instances in which the jetski would have had the right of way. That the speedboat owner paid for the Chinese tourist's hospital bill is very generous and not something that he had to do . That the speedboat captain was driving the boat without a license or with an expired license is something that he should be punished for ... and the same goes for the Chinese tourist if he was driving the jet ski without an appropriate license .

Posted by Sailor on September 20, 2013 13:56

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This story is a spoof done a few months late of April Fools day right?
Phuket, no Thailand, is doomed if this is the way the leadership thinks.

Posted by Jacgem on September 20, 2013 14:05

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Staggering!! Shed a few crocodile tears and have your sentence reduced by first 66%, then another 75% and then finally 100%.

I wonder if I rob a bank in Phuket whether my tears will eliminate any sentence or punishment.

Simon

Posted by Simon Luttrell on September 20, 2013 14:41

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@Simon: Your tears will not help, because your are farang.

Posted by BeerChang on September 20, 2013 16:38

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Sorry but Khun Phuripat can only be described as a joke and one of the reason's for the bad reputation watersports have on Phuket

Posted by Arthur on September 20, 2013 20:34

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Sailor is spot on. And Khun Phuripat is right (I am quite irritated while writing this...) not to punish the speed boat captain, as this guy was kind enough to pay what he did not have to in a legal way. The jetski rider was crashing him and should have been quite thankful.

I mean, really, don't you not see it? The speedboat captains mistake was not to pay a little thing to get his licence re(!)newed. He had optained one but "forgot" to pay the annual fee or whatever. If he would have paid that fee, he would not have been a better captain. He once had his licence and he was practicing his trade every day. And he was crashed by that greenhorn jetski driver.

Only because that guy was Chinese and some high ranking officials are afraid of them envoys and only because the captain is a decent and honorable guy who took responsibility, where he did not have to (where was the jetski renter?). Khun Phuripat did right. Even so his PR while doing right is a little infuriating and let me think, he is positioning himself for an election campaign. *55

And all of you, think for one second, would you have paid for the Chinese guy, who crashed you? Would you have been profoundly sorry for an accident that the other guy had to avoid and did not? That is what this Thai guy did. And that is what Khun Phuripat did see, while making his special acting.

Posted by Lena on September 21, 2013 03:27

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Pathetic!

Posted by jean-paul patrick on September 21, 2013 17:28

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I thought this was a joke article when I started reading about the reduced sentence but it isn't is it?

Posted by Anonymous on September 21, 2013 17:35

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Additional Marine Phuket 5 staff will ensure boats are not overloaded ? Since years the Aonang Princess boats are overloaded up to 200% of it's capacities and nobody cares !

Posted by Werni on September 21, 2013 18:52

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A sincere thanks to this online publication for bringing these timely and appropriate news articles to the tourist population. Truth be told, had we read some of this Thai news prior to arrival, my family would have vacationed elsewhere.

I do not know the details of this crash, I don't know who was in who's right of way, etc...however, I do know that most countries would demand a penalty of any boat captain that was operating a vessel with passengers on board without a proper license. And in most countries, big old crocodile tears would not get you a break but instead of look of disgust from any grown man in the vicinity.

Any casual observer who has walked along Patong Beach must be scratching their heads and wondering why this type of incident does not occur more frequently.

The entire water-motorsport environment on that beach is an "accident waiting to happen".

I will be the very first to say I don't know a darned thing about Thailand like the expats who call it home. I only wish to say that if I was a local Thai then I would be very saddened by the negative impact of tourism on a region that was so recently a true paradise on earth. I would suggest you travel to Hawaii and see that good stewardship and responsible tourism can save your beaches.

Take back your country from those locals and farang that are exploiting it for short term gain.

Posted by Concerned & Not Surprised on September 22, 2013 07:07


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