Thai police investing heavily in speed cameras
In a recent statement released by officials, one notable piece of information is the increased spending on handheld speed cameras.
For those with a heavy foot, you might want to be extra careful from now on as the Thai government is spending over 500 million baht to kit out officers with hand-held radar guns to measure motorist’s speeds.
To put this into perspective, 500 million Baht is over 10 Million Great British Pounds, or over 15 million US Dollars. What we are trying to say is that is by no means, a small amount.
Yes, the Thai roads are in desperate need of rules intended to clamp down on a number of issues including speed, but the figure still seems a little excessive, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed and many Thai social media sites either.
The budgeting committee of the Ministry of Interior has approved the purchase of 849 handheld devices which have an individual cost of 675,000 baht each.
Now that is one expensive camera, don’t you think. Now we are not suggesting any backhanders are taking place, you can be your own judge on that, but many Thai’s have commented saying that a top of the range speed camera can be bought for less than 100,000 Baht. That’s over 500,000 baht difference, which just seems crazy.
That makes the total that will be spent 573 million baht in what the government says is a move to make roads safer, we won’t be holding our breath, however.
