Rescuers, Medical Workers To Stand By 24 Hours During Holidays

[george]

Rescuers, medical workers to stand by 24 hours during holidays

BANGKOK: -- Rescuer and medical workers across countries will be on 24 hour standby to deal with road accident victims during the New Year holidays, said the Public Health Minister, Dr Mongkol na Songkhla. He said the ministry has ordered 30,000 rescuers and 4,000 emergency medical workers to be prepared for accidents from December 2 to January 2.

He urged members of public to call the emergency phone number 1669 to inform them of any accidents during this period and said a rescue team and medical workers will reach the accident 'within 15 minutes'.

According to the health ministry's records from January to September 2007, about two million people across the country were involved in road accidents. The highest rate was in Nakorn Ratchasima province with 26,557 cases.

-- The Nation 2007-12-27

[sriracha john]

Rescuers, medical workers to stand by 24 hours during holidays

Will there be rescuers on standby for the rescuers who might need to be rescued from other rescuers as they fight over who gets to rescue people that need rescuing?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=142740

Rescuers Seek Rescue From Other Rescuers, the state of Thailand's ambulance

[londonthai]

rescuers and medical workers should be on the stand by by the definition - accidents don't wait for them to open their offices 8-5.

as to 2 million involved in roads accidents in nine months (so at least 2.5 million in a year) is a pretty scarry statistic. Says a lot about the state of the roads and their users.

[Jai Dee]

Land Transport Director sets target to reduce New Year’s casualties to less than 413

Director of the Department of Land Transport Silapachai Jarukasemratana (ศิลปชัย จารุเกษมรัตนะ) has disclosed his target for the annual “7 dangerous days” of New Years Celebrations. Mr. Silapachai has vowed that the department will work to reduce casualties during the period to less than 413 from the 2005 tally of 449.

The director stated that as the department has spent the past years promoting and informing citizens of road safety and risk awareness it has been able to reduce accidents in various holidays. The department has cooperated with engineering students in providing car check up services to the public as to reduce accidents from faulty vehicles.

The department reiterates that the public may still bring their cars in for check up in over 308 vocational schools throughout the country. Mr. Silapachai also reported that his department has joined hands with the Public Relations Department to dispense accident and traffic information during the 7 danger days so that citizens can be better informed.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 28 December 2007

[Jai Dee]

Citizens returning home en masse

Many citizens have begun to travel back to their homes throughout the nation with almost all forms of transportation being utilized. All major bus terminals in Bangkok have begun to experience throngs of citizens wishing to travel to their homes outside the capital.

Bus terminals have reported that a majority of citizens are traveling to Southern provinces with many booking their seats in advance; circumventing the holiday rush and allowing for transport personnel to better facilitate service. Almost all forms of transportation including buses and trains have begun to announce that they are no longer accepting advanced booking but affirm that there are still seats available.

The holiday rush is expected to last for the coming days.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 28 December 2007

[londonthai]

new year accidents are more about drink driving than faulty vehicles.

[Jai Dee]

Health officials to be on alert for New Years

The Public Health Ministry has instructed all emergency medical units as well as public works and rescue units to be on alert for New Year’s celebrations. All medical centers will be asked to stay open for 24 hours throughout the critical period of New Year’s travel.

Public Health Minister Doctor Mongkol Na Songkhla revealed that an additional 4,000 medical workers and close to 30,000 rescue workers have been called to service to facilitate citizens during the holiday. Also, a special call center has been established at 1669 to allow citizens access to services.

The ministry is aiming to greatly reduce road accidents and fatalities from previous years which have been noted to experience up to 30,000 accidents.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 28 December 2007

[PhilHarries]

The target represents an 8% reduction.

Any target in any safety drive has absolutely got to be zero however impossible it is to attain.

Shows how important road safety is in the minds of bureaucrats. But it's the old "loss of face" syndrome again. Whatever you do set yourself a target that you can attain instead of one that is challenging and requires real effort by the BiB instead of just collecting "donations".

[exexpat]

This is much easier than most people think:

These are easy:

1. Ban alcohol sales during the holiday.

2. Breath tests on the highway by police.  

3. Enforcing helmet laws like in Vietnam...

4. Enforcing one person per moto limit during the holidays.

This takes a bit more money...

4. building highways to be dual carriageway with medians, and closing off u turns and putting in overpasses.

Edited December 28, 2007 by exexpat

[exexpat]

Yeah, 2 million traffic injuries in 9 months is like the entire thai population in 24 years.

[wintermute]

Semi-annual purging of the Thai gene pool. The next one is Songkran. Fasten your seatbelts..I have a feeling there is going to be more drunken revelry this time around because of the election.

[Tony Clifton]

Just like before, they'll fail miserably, thinking they're doing a mighty fine job putting up road blocks when 99.9999999% of the carnage goes on between road blocks where there's never any active road patrols, as happens on every holiday, year round as a matter of fact.

Either they are incompetent, lazy or don't learn because most are just too plain stupid themselves to be responsible for public safety. Could also be a combination of all.

Edited December 28, 2007 by Tony Clifton