Video: Not again! Pick-up refuses to let ambulance pass - victim dies of drowning as a result

[phetpeter]

Firstly the ambulance driving is driving a Toyota or Nissan van , if you haven't driven one of these vans, you would know you don't wanna try any flash moves, they are unstable, empty, and with 5 people in them. Plus these waterfall areas with wardens , should all be trained and carry the emergency resuc kits, They are easy to use and even the thickest of Thai's should be able to do something. In fact it should be mandatory to have first aid training in all school for all students. What the point of my daughter wearing a red cross uniform once a week in school if she isn't even given first aid training , which she is not!

[wotsdermatter]

One serious problem in Thailand is the lack of First Aid Training.  If the driver taking the passenger to meet the ambulance has such a skill he/she could have saved the life of the passenger by using CPR.  In all of my years in Thailand, I have never met anybody qualified in First Aid except for nurses, doctors, and emergency and ambulance crews.

[evadgib]

1 hour ago, a977 said:

The video should have shown the number plate of ute so (inept) RTP could investigate and fine Baboon for hindering ambulance

Your dashcam audio sounds like mine ?

[reargunnerph3]

A Bt10,000 fine may help Thai drivers remember to move over!

[sammieuk1]

There is a sense of dying from sometimes very salvable situations for a number of first responders reasons.   

[terminatorchiangmai]

2 hours ago, simoh1490 said:

The guy moved, he was slow in doing so but he moved, PLUS, the ambulance could have undertaken him, there's no story here, move along.

 

Right , it was only 35 seconds the ambulance was behind him.

Maybe he was playing loud music.

We all know Thais hardly ever look in their mirrors.

[prakhonchai nick]

In recent trips in the lower Isaan area over the past month, I would estimate that at least 50% of vehicles (other than motorbikes) stay in the outside lane of dual cariageways all the time. The only time they move is to undertake a slower moving vehicle hogging the outer lane, following which they move back to the outer lane. Invariably the inside lane is totally clear enabling me to undertake a whole procession.

 

Hefty fines MUST be implemented for ALL motoring offences. Nothing else will change the stupidness  irresponsibility and thoughlessness of the majority of Thai drivers. 5,000baht springs to mind.. (for 1st offence -double for repetition) .something that ,most will not want to pay a 2nd time.

 

Only problem is finding someone to stop them and extract the cash from them. Therein lies yet another problem.

[nauseus]

Rescue/ambulance driver is worse than the pickup numpty; he could have undertaken the pickup straight away but instead he wanted to blow his own horn, so to speak. This is a rare time a Thai has not gone for the undertake!

 

But nearly a 2 minute VDO and no sign of the hospital. If the patient had not been resuscitated by then (which any decent paramedic should be able to do) then I doubt the outcome would be any different. They can't just blame the pickup driver!

[CLW]

Under a military govt the least each province should expect is some sort of air ambulance service; 
'Hearts and minds' an' all that...
 

Yes, where are air ambulances in Thailand? They can afford submarines but not new helicopters. Nice to see a government take care of it's population.
And secondly for God's sake, please introduce proper ambulance cars not these shoeboxes.

[captspectre]

this crap will continue to happen until the POLICE or the dear leader start locking up these idiots! they have the license number! all they have to do is go to their home, arrest them with the TV camera's running causing them to lose face and the problem is solved!

 

[oldlakey]

3 minutes ago, nauseus said:

Rescue/ambulance driver is worse than the pickup numpty; he could have undertaken the pickup straight away but instead he wanted to blow his own horn, so to speak. This is a rare time a Thai has not gone for the undertake!

 

But nearly a 2 minute VDO and no sign of the hospital. If the patient had not been resuscitated by then (which any decent paramedic should be able to do) then I doubt the outcome would be any different. They can't just blame the pickup driver!

Try reading the OP sunshine the patient was not in the ambulance

[oldlakey]

I think that the users of Thailands roads should bend over backwards to allow ambulances to go about their duty, because there is a good chance that they will need the use of one sooner or later 

[Bangkok Barry]

12 hours ago, Thongkorn said:

Thais will. Never learn. Thailand is Lawless. Until Thai people obey Thai law  nothing will change.

Also if the so called medics where probly trained  they could have resusitated the person with just better training.Nobody needs to die from drowning if caught quickly enough.

 

Why don't you read the story again and better try to comprehend what it says. Better than condemning the medics without any justification.

[wealthychef]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

many more polite and aware drivers had already moved over to let the ambulance through before this incident occurred. 

Good news!  

[235214_1469957458]

Are you kidding me? I would fire the driver before he would say “retarded” 

Edited April 26, 2018 by 235214_1469957458

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, waders123 said:

Clearly, the video shows the driver is in violation of not getting over for the ambulance.  The driver should be imprisoned, fined heavily, and receive a life ban from driving.  Video all of what happens to the driver through the legal process, then use the video to create a campaign to show what will happen to ALL drivers that do not obey laws when it comes to emergency vehicles.  I bet you will get more cooperation with giving right-of-way to emergency vehicles after the government shows the video on TV and Social media.  It will be a slow process to educate the public but it will be better than talking about it and doing nothing.

 

It doesn't affect the police so they don't care. The Thai view might also be that the event has happened and nothing can change that. A perfect way to avoid all responsibility, which the Thais excel at like no others.

[oldlakey]

1 minute ago, 235214_1469957458 said:

Are you kidding me? I would fire the driver before he would say “retarded” 

I agree mate you cant let people talk to you like that

[TKDfella]

Several posts say that the ambulance could have overtaken on the left. But I suggest two points; 1) We all know undertaking can be risky and overtaking  gives a better view ahead. 2) earlier in the video there were two pickups and one moved left but we aren't given a view as whether that or perhaps another vehicle was still close on the left thus making a move to the left even more risky. Whether the delay was instrumental in the cause of death is debatable. 

[Rob5lax]

Easy fix.  Involuntary manslaughter.  Problem won’t fix itself.  If the authorities don’t educate and enforce they are choosing avoidable deaths and injuries.

[AsiaHand]

And it will always be this "Me first" Thai attitude here .The bib have no actual patroles on the high ways and roads to arrest these axxholes as they are too busy collectoing the brown enevelops for their bosses.

[Tchooptip]

2 hours ago, Dibbler said:

A skilled ambulance driver could have overtaken the pickup without problem on a road that wide. And a skilled rescuer might still have used CPR to resuscitate the patient. Perils of living upcountry in Thailand


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

The patient was NOT in the ambulance, a drowned victim was waiting for the medics in the ambulance halfway on the road!

[connda]

Posts like this could literally be posted every day.  As with a laundry list of other common driving infractions that can be caught routinely on a dash-cam, this is the norm, not the exception.
Why is that problematic?  It shows a country that is devoid of a functioning highway patrol, and a populace that knows it can drive in any manner they wish without much fear of any fines or legal reprisals.  When the focus of the police are fining cigarette smokers 100,000 THB for smoking on the beach, but a driver like this who may cause and be responsible for a lose of life gets only a hand-slap, a small fine, and is let off with a wai?  The country has some really screwed up priorities!  This doesn't change until the priorities of those who run the show in Thailand change. When they start fining drivers like this 100,000 THB, then this kind of driving will quickly end.  But I'm not holding my breath.  Pretty pathetic. 

Edited April 26, 2018 by connda

[luccadomina]

Please please do the CAMPAIGN. It will def. help. I've wished for a campaign like this to be set up for years. Well done DAILY NEWS!!

 

[tifino]

With any hope for karma,  the next Daily should read: 

"Another Ute blocks ambulance,

 gets bounced into Monnie drain,

 & ute driver drowns waiting for another ambulance..."

[0815]

13 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

"Also if the so called medics where probly trained  they could have resusitated the person with just better training.Nobody needs to die from drowning if caught quickly enough."

And here is the reason the victim died............

The member of the public had decided to take the victim in his own transport and meet the ambulance at an agreed spot. But due to the delayed ambulance the meeting was not kept - and the victim died before the ambulance could get to there to give help.

No blame to the ambulance crew, medics, they never even got close to the victim.....until they were dead.

Go to a waterfall.
There is always somebody to collect an entrance fee, collect money for parking...
But i have never seen medics or an ambulance car set up there for the safety of the paying guests.
Maybe they could spend some of the collected money for this ?

[CanuckThai]

12 hours ago, KiwiKiwi said:

 

Thailand is a developing country. The culture Thais immerse themselves in from birth is toxic in so many ways, OK for the stone age or the Serengetti perhaps but not OK at all for the 21st Century on the fringes of the civilised world.

 

Whilst it is understandable, interfering in their lives by trying to apply developed-world cultures to them is a recipe for disappointment and it'll confuse the living Bejasus out of them anyway. Personally I think the approach of naturalists when studying animals in the wild is the right one for developing peoples as well - don't interfere, even to save a life that the natural course of events has decided should end.

 

I know it's painful, disappointing and unnecessary, but in my opinion, to allow their culture to adapt to modern living or die out - either way, under their own steam - is probably the only realistic approach to take. Thais do not want our advice or the benefit of our experience, they only want our money and I for one have decided they've had more than their share of that so they'll have to look elsewhere.

 

Thrive or die out, it's their decision, I'm happy to let them make it, to remain a detached onlooker and to learn, even in my dotage, from watching the behaviour of a nation in the middle stages of euthanasing itself. Might be wrong but I don't think there is anything we can do to help them and I stopped trying more or less as soon as I came to that conclusion. Allow them to work through the natural consequences of being a failing society, they'll work it out. Or not.

 

Sorry not to be more positive but I have learned the hard way to watch stupidity and the consequences of stupidity with alacrity. At least that way I can avoid doing some of the truly bizarre things they do.

 

Thanks for social/cultural anthropology reminder.  I'm sometimes guilty of forgetting to "bob and weave" and/or "smile and wave"....

[Cranky]

Welcome to Planet Selfish.  Population Me.

[Autonuaq]

The pickup driver is wrong no question about this.

 

The ambulance driver could over take using the left lane or the middle axe of the road with a 10 to 20 km difference in speed.

 

But one of the things all officials have to think about is use ONLY light signal when you are in emergency and not like not for show off in many cases driving around like a x mass tree the light on and no emergency. And make that people to see from a distance if the càr is in a hurry and have to make space to let ìt pass by or is just cruising around.

 

Also the horn when replaced by other kind that makes different type of sound like the once the test in Samut Prakan and sound like the Dutch horns people hear them better as well makes you want to move out of the way.

 

And in general people need to learn to drive and have better understanding of traffic. also makes the road more clear.

In many cases 4 lanes wide means still in thailand one lane can be used  

Edited April 26, 2018 by Autonuaq

[stanleycoin]

52 minutes ago, TKDfella said:

Several posts say that the ambulance could have overtaken on the left. But I suggest two points; 1) We all know undertaking can be risky and overtaking  gives a better view ahead. 2) earlier in the video there were two pickups and one moved left but we aren't given a view as whether that or perhaps another vehicle was still close on the left thus making a move to the left even more risky. Whether the delay was instrumental in the cause of death is debatable. 

Nah, Loads of time and room to under take.

Do you think people driving these rescue vehicles should only over take on the out side lane ?. I think not !!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Rescue vehicle driver, wanted his 2 minutes of fame on the internet, its all the rage now days !!!!!!!!!! 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by stanleycoin

[moe666]

13 hours ago, Thongkorn said:

Thais will. Never learn. Thailand is Lawless. Until Thai people obey Thai law  nothing will change.

Also if the so called medics where probly trained  they could have resusitated the person with just better training.Nobody needs to die from drowning if caught quickly enough.

Read the article the victim died before the rescue team arrived as they were held up by the pickup. The reading comprehension of many here is not up to snuff