Passenger Helmets in Thailand: The Second Helmet

Thai law requires a helmet for the passenger as well as the rider. Section 122 of the Land Traffic Act covers "the rider of a motorcycle and any person carried on it", and it goes further: the rider commits a separate offence by riding while his passenger is not wearing one. Two people on a scooter means two helmets, and if only one appears, both of you are exposed and the rider is exposed twice.

The reason this needs its own page is that the law and the rental counter disagree. Hire a scooter almost anywhere in Thailand and you will be handed one helmet with the key. Asking for a second is normal, usually free, and the single most useful thing you can do at the counter.

• Who must wear oneThe rider and every person carried
• Rider's separate offenceRiding while the passenger is unhelmeted
• Maximum fine2,000 baht, since 5 September 2022
• Typical rental supplyOne helmet per bike unless you ask

Two duties, not one

Section 122 stacks the obligations. The first paragraph requires the helmet to be worn — by the rider, and by anyone being carried. The second paragraph then makes it an offence for the rider to ride while a passenger is unhelmeted. So an unhelmeted pillion produces two problems at a checkpoint: the passenger's own breach, and the rider's.

The maximum fine for a helmet offence has been 2,000 baht — roughly £45, $60 or €50 — since the 2022 amendment came into force on 5 September that year, raised from 500 baht. As with every Thai traffic penalty, that is a ceiling rather than a charge: the amount on an actual ticket comes from a police schedule we were not able to obtain, and it is normally well below the maximum. The general law on helmets, including the enforcement pattern, is on Thailand's helmet law.

Whose fine is it?

Both, in principle. In practice, at a checkpoint, the rider is the person holding the licence and the registration and doing the talking, and the ticket tends to follow the rider. If you are the passenger on a bike hired in someone else's name, the paperwork will reach them; if the bike is hired in yours, the rental company will pass any unpaid ticket to your card under the rental agreement. Unpaid traffic fines in Thailand explains how a ticket travels from a roadside to a rental deposit.

Getting a second helmet

Rental shops in Thailand generally have a box of spare helmets and will produce a second one if asked. Sometimes it is genuinely the last one and it is a poor fit; sometimes there is a small deposit. Either way, ask before you take the keys rather than after, and check the fit while you are still standing in the shop.

• Ask for two helmets at the counter, and say who the second is for so you get an appropriate size.
• Fasten the strap and try to roll the helmet forward off the head. If it moves, it is too big.
• Check the strap itself — perished webbing and a broken buckle are common on rental lids and are the whole mechanism.
• If the shop cannot supply a second, buy one. Basic helmets are sold in every market and motorbike shop, and a passenger who is here for a fortnight will use it daily.
• Take the second helmet with you rather than leaving it under the seat, or it becomes the helmet nobody wears.

What the shops typically hand over, and how good it is, is covered in rental helmets in Thailand. What actually protects a head — fit, coverage, certification, and whether an open-face lid is enough — belongs to choosing a helmet that actually protects you, which is the page to read if you are buying rather than borrowing.

The passenger's exposure is not just the fine

A pillion passenger carries more risk than the rider in most falls and has less to hold on to and no control over what happens. They are also, insurance-wise, in a more precarious position than they realise.

Travel policies that cover motorcycle riding commonly condition the passenger's cover on the licence held by whoever is in control of the machine — the wording of one insurer we were able to read requires the person in control to hold a current licence valid for the same class of motorcycle and valid for the country you are in. A passenger who has done nothing wrong can therefore find their own claim contested because of the rider's entitlement, or because of a missing helmet.

Children on the back

Children riding pillion is an everyday sight in Thailand, frequently without helmets and frequently more than one at a time. The Act does not exempt children from section 122, and a child-sized helmet is not something a rental shop will have.

This is one of the few subjects on this site where the honest answer is more restrictive than the law. A child on a scooter in Thai traffic, in a helmet that does not fit or none at all, is the highest-risk configuration on the road. Children on motorbikes in Thailand deals with it properly, including what to do when a taxi is not available and the school run is the only option.

Riding two-up changes the bike, too

A second person on a 110cc or 125cc scooter alters everything about how it behaves: braking distance lengthens, the front end goes light on acceleration, cornering feels vague, and hills that were fine solo become slow. On the island roads around Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Chang, a fully loaded rental scooter genuinely struggles on the steep sections, and that is where two-up accidents concentrate.

Practical technique — how to brief a passenger, where they should put their hands and feet, and what to do about luggage — is in carrying a passenger on a scooter in Thailand, and the rental-specific version is in riding two-up on a rented scooter.

Frequently asked questions