For most people, the most hazardous aspect of visiting Pattaya is the traffic. The top three accident black spots are:
Dolphin Roundabout (intersection of Beach Road, Second Road, North Pattaya Road and Naklua Road)
junction of Beach Road and Central Pattaya Road
junction of Beach Road / Walking Street and South Pattaya Road
Most accidents in Pattaya involve motorbikes, and are especially common late at night and in the early hours of the morning, when drunk driving is a significant problem. Be careful on the roads, even if you're just crossing one on foot (and be equally careful both on and off pedestrian crossings, as Thai drivers generally ignore them, and many foreigners seem to approach them with the hope of scoring double points); be careful on the pavements too - obstacles apparently purpose-engineered to trip up as many people as possible are commonplace, and motorcyclists use footpaths as short cuts with impunity. When riding in the back of an otherwise empty songthaew, it's probably safest to sit directly behind the cab.
In the event of an accident, the injured are usually bundled into the back of the next available songthaew or pickup truck or even onto the back of a motorbike (now you know why Pattaya has so many songthaews, why Thailand is the world's biggest pickup truck market, and why so many Thais ride motorbikes).
A completely different genre of traffic-related accident was highlighted by a fatality in January 2006 when a surfacing diver was hit by a speedboat propeller near Ko Laan. Unfortunately, the popularity of Pattaya's beaches combined with a relatively relaxed attitude to safety concerns in general means that swimmers and divers (and even sunbathers on the beach!) being struck by speedboats and jetskis is not such a rare occurrence.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Pattaya
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Pattaya - updated Apr 2024
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Pattaya Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
