Emergency Response

[Tony Clifton]

It's not like they don't get the opportunity to practice...

Here's another yearly miserable failure for the men in brown.

They'll fgail again in a few months when Songkran comes around, standing so proud at the roadblocks while hundreds die and get seriously injured BETWEEN roadblocks. Useless pricks, the whole ot of them

New Year death toll rises to 401

There were a total of 4,475 road accidents together with 401 deaths and 4,903 injuries during the "seven dangerous days" of the New Year break, the Road Safety Center announced Friday.

Road accident figures were up by 19 on the same period last year, while the death toll was down by 48 and injuries down by 40, announced Deputy Interior Minister, Banyat Jansena.

Chiang Rai had both the most accumulated accidents with 157 and the most injuries at 169.

Bangkok had the highest death toll at 24 deaths followed by Khon Kaen and Nakhon Pathom with 18 and 17 respectively. Mae Hong Son, Pattani and Narathiwat reported no deaths from road ac

Edited January 4, 2008 by Tony Clifton

[mark131v]

Very good post,Mark,next time I'll have a problem will wait for the slower,more expensive,ambulance from a good,expensive,hospital,and don't trust the amateur rescuers.Not that I did trust them before!

Sorry,joking,but only a little,and with my hide.Regards,

Just my opinion mate,

It would not need a world changing amount of work. As it is at the moment i have absolutely no doubt people are being killed by some of the treatment they are being given. Example during Vietnam war a very large %age of injured where bleeding out from extremity wounds. Now through proper training very very few people bleed out from exremity (compressible) wounds. Why is this, TRAINING. The issued equiptment today is virtually identical to that issued in the 60s. The wounds are exactly the same, evacuation times are pretty much the same certainly in Afghanistan its all down to training

You dont need to be driving the most expensive up to date ambulance carrying the most expensive state of the art equiptment that is window dressing if you dont have a clue about the basics and how to use the equiptment you have. What you said about waiting for an ambulance to arrive that took longer and is more expensive well can only say that is exactly what i would do rather than be treated by the guys i saw in Pattaya. It is simple training generally utilising simple equiptment and common sense that save lives at the roadside. Bad treatment through lack of training is no excuse wouldnt imagine anybody wants to end up a quadraplegic because the rescue guys couldnt fit a collar properly.

It is not an insumountable task if the thai government wanted to save more lives maybe they dont. I think i will buy a few amulets next time iam over and try not to leave my room too often (joke!!!) Seriously though we/you pay a lot of money for health insurance you would have to be mad not to. The hospitals especially the private ones are world class and certainly not third world the Drs in general when they are not trying to scam more money out of you are good. All of this is for nothing if the emergency care at the scene is crap and the moron at the scene puts you in a wheelchair for the rest of your days through lack of training or because he is just there because he likes the uniform

Mark

[Greenside]

OK I hear you cynics already - who would watch or remember etc etc - but the process must start somewhere!

I agree with you. Just because it's clearly an uphill struggle bettering the basic Thai (Asian) standards of road safety and first aid doesn't mean that it should simply be ignored. The government seems to have done a commendable job thus far in limiting smoking in public places and there's plenty of signage to point out the risks of drinking and driving even though the enforcement is all but non-existant so maybe things can be improved in the long term - it's just going to be a long hard campaign.

[Tony Clifton]

It is going to be a looong and hard campaign when each and every one is a failure with no sign of improvement year after year, nothing is learned with each failure, and endless loop.

Do they even bother trying to imitate or even consult foreign authorities for ways to implement new measures? Nope.

Watch the next Songkran holidays prove once again that complacency and incompetence rule.

[Payboy]

What on Earth have they to learn from countries that have had immeasurable success with eliminating a culture of drink driving anyway?

just passed the holland beer house on rama 2 rd the other day - it's parking lot is larger than some dept stores nearby.

hope they're encouraging customers to leave their cars in the lot after drinking and pick them up the next day when sober.

[PhilHarries]

Its the Thai way.

What on Earth have they to learn from countries that have had immeasurable success with eliminating a culture of drink driving anyway?

Big face would be lost.

Sadly this is a very true observation. In terms of road safety and road traffic management there is very little new in the world but the Thai government and it's minions refuse to admit that they could perhaps learn from foreign consultants. Also those consultants will often produce reports that do not support the cosy little deals set up between the various associated parties to blow hot air and pocket the funds made available.

But it is funny how often you'll see a committee of stuffed shirts going off on a little jolly to London or New York to study things like traffic management for nothing to change. If only there was some way a cost benefit analysis could be done to these little junkets and have the participants explain their actions and any downstream changes made. But, hey, I'm dreaming again.