Thai "opportunists" following ambulances through traffic acting illegally

 

Picture: TNews

 

Following news of an ambulance being driven illegally Thai media have reminded motorists about their own responsibilities when they hear a siren or see flashing lights behind them.

 

Tnews said that most people know that they should get out of the way by creating a path for the ambulance.

 

But they commented that many Thai "opportunists" use the situation to get one up on their fellow drivers by following the emergency vehicle through heavy traffic.

 

This they said is illegal as the law states that no one can follow within 50 meters of an emergency vehicle.

 

A 500 baht fine exists under section 76 of the 1979 traffic law for not getting out of the way. Motorists can also be fined for following in the slipstream of an emergency vehicle, they said.

 

An ambulance crew in Nonthaburi are in the news after being featured on Facebook going the wrong way down a road in a non-emergency situation.

 

Source: TNews

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-11-28

5 minutes ago, webfact said:

A 500 baht fine exists under section 76 of the 1979 traffic law for not getting out of the way.

Probably the reason they do it, and that is if they get caught !

Pathetic fines like this will never put an end to anything !

Thai motorists being selfish and pulling illegal manoeuvres to get through traffic? That isn't exactly news and given the paltry fine, which won't be issued cos the cops don't enforce any rules, is unlikely to change.

500 is a days wages for a construction worker and nearly 2 days for a Farm hand. 

 

I also do it on the motobike. Would i have to drive between the cars if there's an empty lane behind the ambulance?

 

Yes i know i have to keep left where motocy-taxi's are coming against traffic and cars just drive onto the road out of sidestreets without waiting for motocycles...why not fine them first for doing so?

Hope no one was seriously sick or injured in this ambulance. It was stuck in traffic just like we were. We both sat there for about 20 minutes before the road opened up.

59 minutes ago, missoura said:

Hope no one was seriously sick or injured in this ambulance. It was stuck in traffic just like we were. We both sat there for about 20 minutes before the road opened up.

For BKK they should develop very narrow ambulances, in my homecountry we have motobike ambulances but they don't have a bed, they would call the helicopter-ambulance if needed.

 

Also i don't even care for wailing lights anymore, plenty of shops installed them right next to the road to get attention. Also loads of cars customized blinkers or breaklights so it's not worth it to pay attention to them, need all my attention to focus on the holes in the road and all idiot drivers around me.

2 hours ago, ozziedave007 said:

500 is a days wages for a construction worker and nearly 2 days for a Farm hand. 

 

And neither has a car, so they run little risk being fined.

 

Car prices start here around 400.000 baht. I suppose who can pay 400k can also pay a few k when they act like a jackass.

31 minutes ago, Bob12345 said:

And neither has a car, so they run little risk being fined.

 

Car prices start here around 400.000 baht. I suppose who can pay 400k can also pay a few k when they act like a jackass.

You should come to Thailand some time and see all the construction workers and farm hands in their very used vehicles.

An offensive post has been removed. 

I was staying in Pathum Thani once. Some teenagers had a modified "Low-Rider" truck with ambulance lights and sirens on it. They came back and forth, right near my building, screaming thru the intersection about a dozen times one evening.

 

Not a cop in sight.

 

About a week later, cops were there at rush hour writing tickets for people stopping beyond the white line at the light. Worthless Buffoons In Brown...

5 hours ago, webfact said:

This they said is illegal as the law states that no one can follow within 50 meters of an emergency vehicle

The law?

Hahaha.

 

Who cares? Not a cop in sight who will work. So who cares about some rules written down somewhere?

I think ambulance drivers must also bear some responsibility. I have seen many on the roads flashing their lights, when clearly there is no emergency. This should also be banned as it undermines the value of the signal to give way.

By law in Thailand you are supposed to pull over and stop when an emergency vehicle is approaching with lights flashing.  I have yet to see anyone move out of the way for one, let alone stop.

 

never happens in Udon Thani, there no-one gives way to any vehicle flashing their red lights not even the Police, who by the way are probably late for their meal..........!!!!!!!

Saturday morning walking along Soi Bongkot Pattaya.

 

Just got to the junction with Cheery restaurant and an ambulance was approaching at speed sirens blaring and lights flashing!!!

 

As the ambulance got to about 40 meters from the junction this truck just pulled out right in front.

 

The ambulance driver had to slam his breaks on and was about 2 meters away from the back of the truck who just pulled away as if no one was even  behind him.

 

Unbelievable!!!

Give way,i might arrive a quarter of a second later at my destination,no way,[ understandable as they would be running anything up to a hour late anyway,]-ie; meet you at 5pm,okay ,this means we will leave at 5 pm to meet you when we get there.

Quite surprising in the first place, how the Bangkok emergency response vehicles can make their way through at rush hour !

 

Obviously people who are stuck in trafic jams are tempted to follow and use the path opened by a emergency vehicle. Seen many people doing the same in Europe...

 

But one may consider it worse not to pull over and give way,  rather then those who follow an emergency vehicle which is also not acceptable of course.

 

 

What's the good of all those rules and regulations and laws,No one adheres to them and No one enforce any of them.   

2 hours ago, the guest said:

I think ambulance drivers must also bear some responsibility. I have seen many on the roads flashing their lights, when clearly there is no emergency. This should also be banned as it undermines the value of the signal to give way.

It probably is but TiT.

 

I take umbridge at Kamikhazi ambulance drivers hopping into my (oncoming traffic/bloody dangerous) lane when clowns in their own won't yield.

"A 500 baht fine exists under section 76 of the 1979 traffic law for not getting out of the way. Motorists can also be fined for following in the slipstream of an emergency vehicle, they said."

Only enforced on Flying Pigs Day.  

9 hours ago, Thian said:

I also do it on the motobike. Would i have to drive between the cars if there's an empty lane behind the ambulance?

 

Yes i know i have to keep left where motocy-taxi's are coming against traffic and cars just drive onto the road out of sidestreets without waiting for motocycles...why not fine them first for doing so?

Great to know that you are all for the common laws of traffic.

You don't say!? Why do so many Thai drivers go on doing it? So many 'kwai'? Mind you, still not as bad as those who won't even get out of the way of ambulances rushing to save a life! Definitely ''kwai yai' those! But it all seems to get worse, like road rage, most probably by the same morons... I'd often want to put some lead in the vacuum their brains should occupy, but, being Farang here, not a citizen of Arkansas and living there...

Tried to do that to the Royals traveling on the motorway once....but they were too fast and couldn't keep up!

It's nice to see "foreign opportunists" are not doing this anyway:)

12 hours ago, Thian said:

I also do it on the motobike. Would i have to drive between the cars if there's an empty lane behind the ambulance?

 

Yes i know i have to keep left where motocy-taxi's are coming against traffic and cars just drive onto the road out of sidestreets without waiting for motocycles...why not fine them first for doing so?

You know what, candid you may be, a dirty opportunist you are for sure, the kind of 'I-myself-and-me' characters I despise, but, hey, maybe Karma will once catch up on you, with a car or truck running over you in one of your silly a-social maneuvers, and on that day you will be the one complaining about the ambulance's slow pace, well...

I think on the express ways they should have designed an emergency hard shoulder instead of those lanes that look just like an emergency hard shoulder but are used as regular lanes on the instruction of an uneducated traffic police force....  

 

 

While there maybe some improvement emergency vehicles still have way too much unnecessary traffic to contend with for there is no real and genuine consideration towards 'the greater good'... it really is 'dog eat dog' on the roads of Thailand.

 

Those who may follow emergency vehicles are really of no significance to the greater issue at hand which is the extreme difficulty with which grid-lock is cleared when an emergency vehicle urgently requires passage.

 

 

 

1 minute ago, bangrak said:

You know what, candid you may be, a dirty opportunist you are for sure, the kind of 'I-myself-and-me' characters I despise, but, hey, maybe Karma will once catch up on you, with a car or truck running over you in one of your silly a-social maneuvers, and on that day you will be the one complaining about the ambulance's slow pace, well...

 

You may be getting your knickers in a twist.... the point made by Thain was of him 'Following' an ambulance on his motorcycle rather than splitting lanes between cars... it was not of him pulling in front of an ambulance and impeding its emergency passage...

6 hours ago, digger70 said:

What's the good of all those rules and regulations and laws,No one adheres to them and No one enforce any of them.   

 

I'm not sure that rules and regulations are the main issue. Speaking from my own experience in the UK, I think that drivers there give way to emergency vehicles, not because of the fear of a penalty, but because of good manners and respect for the emergency services.

 

The same goes for not slipstreaming emergency vehicles (although, of course, it does happen occasionally). It's tantamount to parking in a disabled space - just not cricket.

 

Maybe time for a media campaign to shame people into doing the "right" thing.

On 11/28/2017 at 11:39 AM, Thian said:

For BKK they should develop very narrow ambulances, in my homecountry we have motobike ambulances but they don't have a bed, they would call the helicopter-ambulance if needed.

 

Also i don't even care for wailing lights anymore, plenty of shops installed them right next to the road to get attention. Also loads of cars customized blinkers or breaklights so it's not worth it to pay attention to them, need all my attention to focus on the holes in the road and all idiot drivers around me.

Twnety + years back car souns shops sold and installed lights and sions on any car. And they could do car soundproofing.

Most customers ere rich business people who, they engaged the lights / sirens to get more quickly through raffic and the police wuls aid them fro an approprite 'fee'.

Then the law was changed so that only vehicles with a license could have these lights and sirens.

At the law change a large % of these lights and sirens disappeared from private vehicles.