Pattaya —
Three motorcycle taxi drivers were injured after clashing with a small group of Bolt riders armed with a baseball bat. The injured claimed that they were attacked first, but a video clip shot by outsiders appears to prove otherwise.
The brawl between a large group of Pattaya motorcycle taxi drivers and about three Bolt drivers took place at 10 PM yesterday, January 25th.
The encounter took place in front of Arcadia Beach Resort condominium in Soi Thappraya 7 in South Pattaya. The incident left three motorcycle taxi drivers injured, Mr. Anan “Nan” Kaewwichian, 37, Mr. Noppadon “Nueng” Kansup, 37, and Mr. Monthon “Por” Leoseng, 37.
Nan, who sustained head and leg injuries, told The Pattaya News that he was waiting for customers near the Arcadia condominium, about 50 meters away from the taxi stand. Then, three unidentified Bolt riders pulled up their motorbikes near him, seemingly to also wait for customers.
Nan stated that he told the Bolt drivers that they could not pick up customers at that spot because it overlapped the taxi drivers’ operating territory and that they needed to pick up customers elsewhere to respect other drivers.
The Bolt drivers, however, did not listen and instead aggressively demanded an answer as to “why they could not pick up customers at that spot,” Nan told The Pattaya News.
The injured driver said that he tried to explain the reason, but the Bolt drivers still did not listen, adding one of them pulled out an iron tire lever to threaten him, so he had to call for backup from his friends.
Nan continued that the fight broke up as soon as his friends arrived. The Bolt drivers also had a baseball bat, which they used to hit him and his friends multiple times.
He insisted that the Bolt men were in the wrong because they were the ones initiating the attack. Nan showed The Pattaya News his injuries as well as a baseball bat that the Bolt riders accidentally left at the incident scene after they escaped.
However, the nature of the incident in the footage, which was recorded by anonymous outsiders and later went viral on social media, was slightly different from Nan’s claim.
The footage showed that there were three Bolt drivers and a lot of motorcycle taxi drivers. The latter swarmed the Bolt men and reportedly tried to grab the Bolt men’s baseball bat, which escalated the situation.
In addition, the motorcycle taxi riders also appeared to try to gang up on the Bolt men and repeatedly threw punches at them. One of the viral video clips was recorded by someone at the condominium, showing that the Bolt men were largely outnumbered and a lot of motorcycle taxi men also had weapons.
One injured victim said to the press that he was okay with Bolt drivers picking up passengers, but they needed to be respectful by doing it far away from the taxi stand.
Initially, one victim said that he and his friends would report the incident to the Pattaya police station to seek legal action against the Bolt drivers. The baseball bat and CCTV footage, which the victim claimed would have recorded the entire event, would be used as evidence.
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