Hughes Krupica: Dangerous activities

You must also check your own insurance package to see whether the insurance covers you for damages occurred while participating in these dangerous sports. Normally, such activities are excluded or attract a higher premium. Please also note that negligence and use of alcohol or intoxicating substances, or even prescription drugs, may exclude claims.

You may have noticed that most operators of dangerous activities generally make an announcement, or even ask you to sign a form before you carry out any activity, specifying that they will not be liable or they will have restricted liability for any damages incurred as a result of any action deliberately or negligently committed by them in relation to the activities. In Thai law, such terms and/or announcements cannot be raised as an exclusion or restriction of the liability of the operators. The operators are liable for any damages incurred, according to Section 8 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act, B.E. 2540 (1997).

With the above in mind, if you expect to take part in any of these dangerous activities, you should first look for the most suitable insurance plans for yourself, carefully check the equipment (to the extent that is possible) before taking part and verify with the operators whether they have taken out insurance for third party liability.

It is also important to note that, in 2015, the Thai government promulgated a new law to monitor operators of “amusement equipment” in amusement or theme parks. The law is entitled Ministerial Regulation re: control on amusement equipment B.E. 2558 (2015), effective 24 April 2015 (“Ministerial Regulation”). The Ministerial Regulation was drafted to improve safety measures for such equipment. It provides rules, measures and conditions in construction, permission to use, inspection methods, safety measures as well qualifications of the materials used for, or necessary related parts of, the amusement equipment.

Under this Ministerial Regulation, “amusement equipment” means a construction built for play in an amusement park or similar, which consists of a “main structure” and “supporting structure”, and has any of the following: (i) movement which causes the user to move with a speed of not less than 5 metres per second; (ii) the height between the ground where the amusement equipment is situated and the highest point where the user goes up to is not less than 2.50 meters; (iii) not less than 15 horsepower (11 kilowatts) of mechanical power; or (iv) water is needed for some parts of the amusement equipment in order to operate and the water depth shall not be less than 0.80 meters.

Any construction, demolition or relocation of amusement equipment must be carried out after obtaining approval from the Tessabaan (Municipality Office). An operator is required to have insurance for third party liability with the insured amount as specified in the Ministerial Regulation.

The owner or the possessor of amusement equipment which has been operated and owned prior to the effective date of the Ministerial Regulation will also be required to comply, so there is some retrospective effect of this Ministerial Regulation.

Some of those dangerous activites mentioned above may fall under this Ministerial Regulation if the equipment is considered “amusement equipment” under the Ministerial Regulation. With this Ministerial Regulation, those taking part will be ensured that there are safety standards and they will be protected from accidents when they play at an amusement park.

Even with all the protections of law in place, there can be no replacement for common sense and checking the licenses, insurance and competence of the operator of any dangerous sport activity or amusement park equipment. It is notable that accidents have occurred in other countries such as the U.K. in recent times at amusement parks, and therefore it must be accepted that there is an inherent risk in using any such equipment in any country, including Thailand.

By Desmond Hughes (Senior Partner) and Oranit Sawanankunanon (Senior Associate), of Hughes Krupica.