Cops round up road racers
Police in three regional bureaus have arrested nearly 600 young motorcycle street racers or dek waen for illegal street races and causing a public nuisance, along with seizing more than 10,000 motorcycles.
Provincial Police Region 1 covering the Central Plains provinces, Provincial Police Region 3 overseeing the lower northeastern provinces and Provincial Police Region 6 which takes charge of the lower northern provinces briefed the media yesterday about their crackdown operations between June 20-30.
The Royal Thai Police ordered police nationwide to launch the operations just one day after the government lifted the night-time curfew on June 14. The police had issued a stern warning against dek waen motorbike racers who had returned to take over the roads of Bangkok and some provinces elsewhere despite Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha warning the government would reimpose the curfew if people failed to cooperate with Covid-19 control measures.
Assistant national police chief Pol Lt Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, in charge of the road racing suppression centre, said Provincial Police Region 1 had arrested 109 young motorcycle street racers and charged them with illegal street races and causing a public nuisance.
Pol Lt Gen Damrongsak said police also called in the parents of the young riders so they could be informed about their children’s behaviour, before adding that 11,743 motorcycles had also been seized.
Meanwhile, Pol Maj Gen Apisak Dechakampu, acting deputy chief of the Provincial Police Region 3 said his department had arrested 476 suspects in their area and 665 motorcycles had been seized from repair shops and racing competitions. Police also seized 194 guns from other suspects and caught 257 drug users and seized 10,366 speed pills during the operation.
Last but not least, Pol Lt Gen Apichat Sirisit, chief of the Provincial Police Region 6, said his department arrested six young racers and seized 1,306 motorcycles found modified for the race. Despite the large number of bikes seized, complaints from the public about road racing have fallen recently.