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Re: Patriotism bill ‘goes too far’, News, November 23rd.

I believe the practice of standing at attention at 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM as the national anthem plays during the flag ceremony should continue however the new additional proposed requirements are not only impractical but dangerous as well. If everyone is expected to stop, except on the expressway, and stand at attention outside their vehicles in the roadway during the one minute and eight seconds of the ceremony chaos and mayhem would certainly follow. What about the tourist in the rental car that is unaware of forgets the requirement? How about the emergency vehicles in the process of saving lives trying to use the roads to get to victims or rushing to a hospital? Think about the drunk drivers that will be running down men, women and children standing in the road because of their impairment and slow reaction time. Injury accidents will occur everyday throughout the Kingdom to say nothing of the unnecessary traffic jams the ceremony will cause twice a day.

To refute the notion that the police do not think that stopping traffic throughout the capital would not create traffic jams a little common sense and engineering principals come into play. One traffic engineering reality is that for every one minute of stop time delay it takes traffic ten minutes for traffic return to normal. It would take two minutes to complete the ceremony including stopping, exiting, paying your respects and getting back in the vehicle. That equates to at least 20 minutes of added trip time in a perfect world. When you factor in the body count and accidents that are sure to occur, the delay could be more than an hour in the areas the mishaps take place. The delays and road carnage would take place twice a day every working day and are totally preventable. Fortunately the law makers have specifically exempted flying aircraft in the bill.

David Barkdull
Bangkok

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