Is 500 baht fine enough? Patient dies after irresponsible motorists fail to pull over for ambulance

[webfact]

Is 500 baht fine enough? Patient dies after irresponsible motorists fail to pull over for ambulance

 

Picture: Daily News

 

A Thai man has died after rude and inconsiderate motorists failed to get out of the way of an ambulance trying desperately to save him.

 

The ambulance had its siren blaring, lights flashing and horn sounding.

 

Yet this was not enough to alert two vans impeding its progress.

 

One of the drivers claimed they didn't hear the ambulance.

 

Juju Panatsaya, a niece of the deceased, went online to express her sorrow at losing her beloved uncle.

 

He was a terminal liver cancer patient, reported Daily News.

 

He had been in his way from Ayuthaya to Buriram. While going through Korat he took a turn for the worse and the ambulance driver decided to turn on his siren.

 

A video clearly showed the number plates of the offending vehicles.

 

There was no report of police action in the Daily News article. 

 

A 500 baht fine exists for the offence of impeding an emergency vehicle, notes Thaivisa. 

 

Such fines are far greater in many countries and after plenty of similar stories in recent years there have been increasing calls to punish such inconsiderate drivers more severely.

 

Source: Daily News

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-05-29

 

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[YetAnother]

7 minutes ago, webfact said:

in recent years there have been increasing calls to punish such inconsiderate drivers

 a great many thais care about exactly ONE thing ; ME and me only

[keith101]

You would have to make it a 5,000 baht fine and 6 demerit points with no excuses or exceptions before these people would do the right thing paying big fines is all they understand .

Edited May 29, 2020 by keith101

[cyril sneer]

given that 80% of other Thai drivers would have done the same, it would be unfair to give a harsher punishment to this one

 

If any extra punishment is needed, it's for lying that they didn't hear the ambulence, but then if you start punishing Thai people for lying...

[LeamchabangLarry]

what kind of trash doesn't yield to an ambulance?

[Grumpy one]

51 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

 a great many thais care about exactly ONE thing ; ME and me only

In the past the people were Siamese, now they are Me Me's 

[colinneil]

Why hide the offending vehicles number plates?

Their number plates should be displayed everywhere, just to show others what arrogant a++e holes they are.

[AndyAndyAndy]

I didn't see the video.

 

But on local roads it's very hard to let ambulance go first. Roads are narrow, full of traffic, cars parked on curbs, motorcycles everywhere... . Sometimes I have ambulance behind me with sirens on and I can't let it go/blocking it, because I have simply nowhere to go... .

[bluesofa]

21 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Why hide the offending vehicles number plates?

Their number plates should be displayed everywhere, just to show others what arrogant a++e holes they are.

I agree with you.

However isn't there this cock-eyed defamation law where the law-breaker becomes the victim, by suing the person publishing the registration number for things like 'mental anguish' or 'embarrassment'.

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by bluesofa
misprit

[bluesofa]

1 hour ago, cyril sneer said:

given that 80% of other Thai drivers would have done the same, it would be unfair to give a harsher punishment to this one

 

If any extra punishment is needed, it's for lying that they didn't hear the ambulence, but then if you start punishing Thai people for lying...

I'm not defending the deaf gits, but the sirens here are very wimp-ish compared to, say, any UK emergency vehicle. In the UK you couldn't possibly say you didn't hear the siren.

[Pilotman]

25 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Why hide the offending vehicles number plates?

Their number plates should be displayed everywhere, just to show others what arrogant a++e holes they are.

Nobody cares, so it would make no difference to the attitude or actions of others.  

[J Town]

1 hour ago, cyril sneer said:

given that 80% of other Thai drivers would have done the same, it would be unfair to give a harsher punishment to this one

You have to start somewhere. If they start giving harsh fines and enforcing them, word will spread quickly and lives will be saved.

[cooked]

10 years ago, a Bangkok taxi driver explained to me that many ambulances had their lights (not sirens) on all the time, so he tended to just ignore them. You see that less these days but I'm sure that that is where this attitude originated.

[brucegoniners]

Well let's see, it's a 100K baht fine to go on the beach. Let's start there!

[Mango Bob]

How about a charge of attempted murder.

[Silent Number]

5 hours ago, cyril sneer said:

given that 80% of other Thai drivers would have done the same, it would be unfair to give a harsher punishment to this one

 

If any extra punishment is needed, it's for lying that they didn't hear the ambulence, but then if you start punishing Thai people for lying...

Huh? No punishment because other drivers would do the same .Punish them also if caught on Ambulance video cam number plate taken huge fine maybe then they will learn.Cant just let off because other drivers do same that’s plain stupid.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Silent Number

[Catkiwi]

Totally agree they should be fined a lot more. Total ignorance to hold up an emergency vehicle.

On the other hand, there are plenty of clowns driving police or emergency vehicles with their lights flashing for apparently no reason and slowly cruising along holding traffic up. If they stuck to only using their lights for a real emergency more people may take them seriously. 

[Silent Number]

6 minutes ago, Catkiwi said:

Totally agree they should be fined a lot more. Total ignorance to hold up an emergency vehicle.

On the other hand, there are plenty of clowns driving police or emergency vehicles with their lights flashing for apparently no reason and slowly cruising along holding traffic up. If they stuck to only using their lights for a real emergency more people may take them seriously. 

Siren on though surely the clincher. 

[Dumbastheycome]

4 hours ago, AndyAndyAndy said:

I didn't see the video.

 

But on local roads it's very hard to let ambulance go first. Roads are narrow, full of traffic, cars parked on curbs, motorcycles everywhere... . Sometimes I have ambulance behind me with sirens on and I can't let it go/blocking it, because I have simply nowhere to go... .

Not believable. Apart from  very small soi there would be few roads that could not  allow the passage of an ambulance even if means turning into a side road or household/business entrance. I have done as such.

 

[Ceruhe]

6 hours ago, cyril sneer said:

If any extra punishment is needed, it's for lying that they didn't hear the ambulence, but then if you start punishing Thai people for lying...

Actually not sure I'd agree to this overall. Considering the amounts of Ambulances I've seen/heard so far, many of them could use a volume up as I, listening to "normal volume" music, can barely hear them 10m behind me, I usually see them long before I can hear them while they are being slowed down by not way giving dip<deleted>s. Either way if an ambulance is tailing you with sirens and lights on for a while and you still don't make way asap, there shouldn't be any excuse that should save you. Not hearing it is one thing, not seeing it is a whole different one.

 

I also don't know how prevalent it is for ambulances to just drive with lights on but sirens off just for the sake of it (otherwise still adhering to normal traffic rules). iirc they aren't allowed do just that, but I also wouldn't know if they are indeed having a patient in the car or not, as it's iirc not strictly required to use the siren to get emergency vehicle priority, either way I make way....but the sentiment is there, which is a problem.

 

This is just one problem of a seemingly endless list in regards to driving here, but it would be nice if that list would get started being worked on at all, regardless of priority.

[JeffersLos]

6 hours ago, LeamchabangLarry said:

what kind of trash doesn't yield to an ambulance?

A Thai needing a sense of power over someone. 

[Mak25]

I don't defend the van driver or anyone blocking emergency vehicles during an emergency. But the misuse of blinking lights and sirens/horns by police or whoever when there is no emergency and just some VIPs want to pass or the police want to look important makes it difficult to separate. One thing is fining strictly without exception but the other thing is also stop misusing it.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Mak25

[overt2016]

Aren't you all sick of this stuff? Thailand has 1,00's of laws that are not enforced.

When those in control uphold them then nothing will change.

 

[hotchilli]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

There was no report of police action in the Daily News article.

And that's the real problem...

[lee b]

Huge fines should be put in place, and any car or van involved in this kind of incident should be taken away and crushed.

[Catkiwi]

2 hours ago, Silent Number said:

Siren on though surely the clincher. 

Yeah, agree for sure but the lights thing just dilutes the importance of them. 

[Bender Rodriguez]

name & shame them, but news is afraid of defamation... sad sad a-hole people where corruption is king

[Magenta408]

No it is not and you know this very well.

[Catkiwi]

16 minutes ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

name & shame them, but news is afraid of defamation... sad sad a-hole people where corruption is king

Careful, your words around corruption could be misconstrued and you could be off to the Monkey house for 14 years or so. Apart from that, if you are referring to the Thais as the sad sad a hole people then you are living in the wrong country. Hopefully the airports do open up soon and you can escape this place that you despise so much.

 

[Mick501]

So often you see emergency service vehicles using lights and sirens to go get their lunch etc.  Seems that they need an in service course titled, "The boy who cried wolf."   There are other factors in play of course, but the virtual blanket response of ignoring the warning signals is partially self inflicted.