Police plan crackdown on trucks in Siem Reap

via CAAI News Media

Tuesday, 12 January 2010 15:02 Rann Reuy

Siem Reap Province

PROVINCIAL and military police in Siem Reap province will be empowered to confiscate vehicles overloaded with goods as part of an effort to preserve newly paved roads as of February 1, the deputy director of the provincial Department of Public Works and Transport said Monday.

“The owners of the illegal vehicles will be responsible for the expenses of the confiscation. If they don’t do what the officials require, their cases will be sent to court,” Lim Soktry said.

He did not specify a specific weight limit for trucks, saying that individual police officers would be tasked with determining which ones were overloaded and could potentially damage the roads.

Police officers will also be responsible for removing from the confiscated trucks any “illegal” attachments sometimes used by truckers to pack more goods into truck beds, he said.

Siem Reap Governor Sou Phirin issued an order on December 26 saying that vehicles equipped with extra shipping containers and cages would be removed from the roads and brought in for examination.

During a December 28 ceremony inaugurating stretches of National Roads 5 and 6, Prime Minister Hun Sen called for tougher enforcement of laws and orders against overloaded vehicles.

Lim Soktry said Monday that most overloaded vehicles “aren’t from Siem Reap but from other provinces”.

“When we implement this notice,” he added, “there will be no exception based on where they are from.”