Section 229: Damaging a public way or an aircraft landing area
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดกระทำด้วยประการใด ๆ ให้ทางสาธารณะ ประตูน้ำ ทำนบ เขื่อน อันเป็นส่วนของทางสาธารณะ หรือที่ขึ้นลงของอากาศยาน อยู่ในลักษณะอันน่าจะเป็นเหตุให้เกิดอันตรายแก่การจราจร ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินห้าปี หรือปรับไม่เกินหนึ่งแสนบาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๔ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever, by any means, causes a public way, a floodgate, a weir or a dam forming part of a public way, or an aircraft landing or take-off area, to be in a condition likely to endanger traffic, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five years, or a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand baht, or both.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 229 sits in the Chapter on Offences Causing Public Dangers and protects the physical way itself. The things it names are a public way, a floodgate, a weir and a dam, the last three qualified as forming part of a public way, together with an aircraft landing or take-off area. It does not name a bridge, and a dam that is not part of a public way falls outside it. The conduct is drawn as widely as possible, doing anything by any means, and the offence is complete once one of those things is put into a condition likely to endanger traffic: actual harm is not required, and the danger guarded against is danger to traffic rather than to the public at large. It carries imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to 100,000 baht, or both. It complements Sections 226 to 228 by protecting the way and its structures rather than only the signalling aids, and because it falls within Sections 226 to 237 it feeds Section 238, which raises the penalty sharply where the offence causes death or grievous bodily harm, and Section 239, which covers the negligent form.
Why this matters in practice
The provision reaches conduct like digging up a road, undermining a dam that carries a public way, or blocking an aircraft landing area, and it bites once the interference is likely to endanger traffic, before any accident happens. Two scoping points decide many cases. First, the floodgate, weir or dam must form part of a public way: an irrigation dam standing on its own is outside the section, whatever is done to it. Second, the section names no bridge, so a charge framed around a bridge has to be tied back to the public way itself. It is a public-danger offence prosecuted by the State and is not compoundable, so no settlement with an affected owner will end it, and if the interference causes death or grievous bodily harm the far heavier Section 238 applies. Defence work usually turns on whether the structure was public, whether it formed part of a public way, whether the accused caused the condition, and whether danger to traffic was genuinely likely; see our overview of criminal law in Thailand.
Cited in 5 Supreme Court decisions (1965 to 2015)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 6655/2558 (2015)
- Decision 3048/2540 (1997)
- Decision 3521/2536 (1993)
- Decision 34/2508 (1965)
- Decision 5889/2554 (2011)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
What structures does Section 229 protect?
A public way, and a floodgate, a weir or a dam forming part of a public way, together with an aircraft landing or take-off area. Two points are easy to get wrong: the section does not name a bridge, and the floodgate, weir and dam are covered only where they form part of a public way, so a dam standing on its own is outside it. The offence is putting any of those things, by any means, into a condition likely to endanger traffic.
What penalty does Section 229 carry?
Imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to 100,000 baht, or both, with heavier penalties if injury or death results.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 229 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 229. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-229/ (accessed 6 September 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 229 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-229/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-229/"><p>Whoever, by any means, causes a public way, a floodgate, a weir or a dam forming part of a public way, or an aircraft landing or take-off area, to be in a condition likely to endanger traffic, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 229 (Thailand): <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-229/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.