Tragic Irony: Phuket Road Rescue Volunteer Dies In Horror Smash

[webfact]

Tragic irony: Phuket road rescue volunteer dies in horror smash

The wreckage of the late Mr Warak's Honda sedan this morning.

PHUKET: -- A volunteer emergency rescue worker, who used his spare time to help Phuket road accident victims, died this morning when his own car slammed into a power pole on Chao Fa West Road in Chalong.

Chalong Police duty officer Anukul Nuket and fellow officers responded to a call at 1:20am today reporting that a black Honda sedan had overshot the curve near the Chalong power substation and slammed into a power pole at the corner of Chaofa Soi 50, also locally known by its old name Soi Taiad.

The driver, 24-year-old Warak Singhabumrung of Nanai Rd in Patong, was dead inside the car.

It took volunteers from the Phuket Ruamjai Kupai Rescue Foundation almost three hours using three “jaws of life” cutters to recover the body of their former colleague from the wreckage.

They were assisted by Wichit Municipality Disaster Prevention and Mitigation officers, who were also called in to help.

The force of the impact pushed Mr Warak’s body into front passenger’s seat. His skull was fractured and his neck, arms and legs broken.

Volunteer colleagues and Mr Warak’s family members expressed deep sorrow while watching his body being pulled from the wreck.

“He was very friendly and good man, willing to help others,” said one onlooker.

Mr Warak, a taxi driver who worked the beach road in front of the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa in Karon, had worked many years as a Phuket Ruamjai volunteer.

One eyewitness told police the car was heading south at high speed before it left the road, reportedly airborne for about three meters before it crashed into the power pole.

Mr Warak’s body was taken to Vachira Phuket Hospital for examination and storage while funeral arrangements are made.

Family members accepted the accident as Mr Warak’s fate. The curve, notoriously dangerous especially in the rain, has been the site of many serious accidents resulting in injury and death over the years, they said.

The accident came less than 24 hours after another man luckily escaped injury on Kata Hill. The car slid off the road and became wedged between a power pole and the roadside embankment.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-09-07

[TAWP]

Someone that doesn't know what irony is...

I'll let George Carlin explain it:

Irony deals with opposites; it has nothing to do with coincidence. If two baseball players from the same hometown, on different teams, receive the same uniform number, it is not ironic. It is a coincidence. If Barry Bonds attains lifetime statistics identical to his father’s it will not be ironic. It will be a coincidence. Irony is “a state of affairs that is the reverse of what was to be expected; a result opposite to and in mockery of the appropriate result.”

For instance:

If a diabetic, on his way to buy insulin, is killed by a runaway truck, he is the victim of an accident.

If the truck was delivering sugar, he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence.

But if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of an irony.

If a Kurd, after surviving bloody battle with Saddam Hussein’s army and a long, difficult escape through the mountains, is crushed and killed by a parachute drop of humanitarian aid, that, my friend, is irony writ large.

Darryl Stingley, the pro football player, was paralyzed after a brutal hit by Jack Tatum.

Now Darryl Stingley’s son plays football, and if the son should become paralyzed while playing, it will not be ironic.

It will be coincidental.

If Darryl Stingley’s son paralyzes someone else, that will be closer to ironic.

If he paralyzes Jack Tatum’s son that will be precisely ironic.

[KarenBravo]

Oooooo.......how incredibly clever of you.

Maybe you should look up the meanings of "insensitive" and maybe also "tactless".

[hanno]

Someone that doesn't know what irony is

Here is a guy that died in accident after having spent his free time helping others, and you quibble about semantics?

[TAWP]

I would think it is rather insensitive to try to put a 'ironic' spin on a death when it is just tragic, but hey, what do I know...

[jamesie]

Someone that doesn't know what irony is

Here is a guy that died in accident after having spent his free time helping others, and you quibble about semantics?

Irony or not..it is another wasted life RIP..only a young man.

Sad fact is that this guy who spent a lot of time tending to others deaths and injuries, a guy who frequently got to see the result of many others mistakes on the roads , yet apparently never 'took on board '' these experiences to the extent that he clearly and sadly put himself in a situation where he was likely to become a victem and not the helper.

The situation he allowed himself to get into took his life. The old 'it wont happen to me' syndrome again.

A friend of mine [taxi driver] stopped after the crash and he said '' car was quick, quick!

That i think would be an understatement for sure.

[random]

whatever this guy has done in the past to help others the fact is he died because he was driving too fast, thankfully he never killed or injured anyone else with his moronic behaviour.

[Boater]

The curve, notoriously dangerous especially in the rain, has been the site of many serious accidents resulting in injury and death over the years, they said.

so why have they not put crash barriers on the curve then????

RIP

[jamesie]

The curve, notoriously dangerous especially in the rain, has been the site of many serious accidents resulting in injury and death over the years, they said.

so why have they not put crash barriers on the curve then????

RIP

At the speed he was travelling the end result would be exactly the same.

If you want the 'wrapped in cotton wool '' approach to deal with all and sundry as it is in the west, you're living in the wrong country IMO. TIT and i enjoy living and driving here without all the bullsh-t. Its up to you...drive to suit the conditions and be alert at all times, drive defensively, anywhere you are, but especially so here in LOS

Look at the west, with all the stealthy 'big brother' approach to road safety and barriers and rules ad nauseum and strict policing and cotton wool syndrome...people still die in huge numbers,

Im' a fatalist and firmly believe that when your numbers up...your numbers up!! end of story...like this guy ..fate!

people who drive like this young guy did, anywhere in the world are dicing with death,and all the safety protection available wont change this. 'driver behavior ' is the cause, and this is where it has to change...but again TIT so it wont...