Sobering-Up Areas to Prevent Drunk Driving Amid 4AM Bar Closings

[reader]

From Pattaya News

Santi Promphat, deputy minister of public health, announced after the committee’s meeting that bars and nightclubs must strictly obey the rules and regulations when they are allowed to operate until 4 AM, starting on December 15th, to ensure patrons safety and minimize alcohol-related incidents.

Entertainment venues in legal zones in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Bangkok and Surat Thani (only on Koh Samui) will be given this privilege, which also applies to hotels nationwide.

Santi stressed that operators are to specifically follow the Entertainment Place Act and Section 29 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which prevent nighttime venues from selling alcoholic beverages to people under 20 years old.

He went on to say that venue operators will be required to conduct breathalyzer tests on patrons. If customers’ alcohol level is above the legal limit of 50 milligrams per deciliter, they will need to rest at the areas provided by the venues until they are sober enough to drive home.

In the event that a customer refuses to rest and has a breath alcohol level exceeding the legal limit, the bar operators must contact the customer’s friends or relatives or hail public transport to arrange for their transportation at the customer’s expense.

Relevant agencies will collect data to assess the impact of extended operating hours.

TPN Media notes it is unclear how this plan is expected to be enforced and many entertainment venue business owners have already brought up many issues, including logistical, with breathalyzing every customer leaving a venue as well as to who would be responsible for paying for the equipment and what to do if a customer refuses the test.

[Marc in Calif]

1 hour ago, reader said:

Entertainment venues in legal zones in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Bangkok and Surat Thani (only on Koh Samui) will be given this privilege, which also applies to hotels nationwide.

He went on to say that venue operators will be required to conduct breathalyzer tests on patrons. If customers’ alcohol level is above the legal limit of 50 milligrams per deciliter, they will need to rest at the areas provided by the venues until they are sober enough to drive home.

I hope this doesn't apply to hotel registration desks and lobbies! Will registered guests (and their guests) need a breathalyzer test to go to their rooms? 🤣

Or should I assume that it's just for hotel bars? 🍷🍺

[Keithambrose]

10 hours ago, reader said:

From Pattaya News

Santi Promphat, deputy minister of public health, announced after the committee’s meeting that bars and nightclubs must strictly obey the rules and regulations when they are allowed to operate until 4 AM, starting on December 15th, to ensure patrons safety and minimize alcohol-related incidents.

Entertainment venues in legal zones in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Bangkok and Surat Thani (only on Koh Samui) will be given this privilege, which also applies to hotels nationwide.

Santi stressed that operators are to specifically follow the Entertainment Place Act and Section 29 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which prevent nighttime venues from selling alcoholic beverages to people under 20 years old.

He went on to say that venue operators will be required to conduct breathalyzer tests on patrons. If customers’ alcohol level is above the legal limit of 50 milligrams per deciliter, they will need to rest at the areas provided by the venues until they are sober enough to drive home.

In the event that a customer refuses to rest and has a breath alcohol level exceeding the legal limit, the bar operators must contact the customer’s friends or relatives or hail public transport to arrange for their transportation at the customer’s expense.

Relevant agencies will collect data to assess the impact of extended operating hours.

TPN Media notes it is unclear how this plan is expected to be enforced and many entertainment venue business owners have already brought up many issues, including logistical, with breathalyzing every customer leaving a venue as well as to who would be responsible for paying for the equipment and what to do if a customer refuses the test.

Another wonderfully mad and impractical regulation. Just imagine try to breathalyze a few hundred partying guys leaving a disco! Let alone contacting their friends etc, and confining them in some form of pen! I mean, who thinks these things up?

[alvnv]

3 hours ago, Keithambrose said:

who thinks these things up?

Obviously, those who don’t go out 😀

[PeterRS]

3 hours ago, Keithambrose said:

Another wonderfully mad and impractical regulation. Just imagine try to breathalyze a few hundred partying guys leaving a disco! Let alone contacting their friends etc, and confining them in some form of pen! I mean, who thinks these things up?

So bars can stay open till 4:00 am. What if a paron who tests positive on the breath test is leaving at 3:39 am? Where does he sober up? And perhaps someone who thought up this mad scheme can recall how long it takes actually to sober up. If someone has drunk 8 beers over the course of an evening, he'll likely have to remain somewhere ifor around 12 hours.

I think there must be a little attic somewhere staffed with elves, goblins and, for those who are operatically minded, Nibelungen whose sole job it is to think up these mad schemes and then send them down by old pressure tubes that used to be common in department stores 60 years ago to the relevant ministry for pronouncement as policy! 

[gerefan]

I believe there is a great deal of misunderstanding about the requirements.

As the headline in the local paper says …

”Thai Authorities to Impose Sobering-Up Areas to Prevent Drunk Driving Amid 4AM Bar Closings”

So if you are not driving it should not apply. 

[macaroni21]

How is a bar to know whether a customer is driving or not? And @PeterRS question about leaving at 3:39 am? 

How are bars to know who a customer's friends and relatives are, and their phone numbers? 

And many more questions. Oh gosh, it boggles the mind.