Spanish tourist killed in fall from waterfall

[Johnny S]

I will clarify a few details of the account.

I don't blame the fall on the park officials at all. It is a wild mountain place. Stuff like this happens.

Every single foreigner who was on site was distressed by the pace and attitude of the rescue response.

Police did arrive early. They did absolutely nothing. No one in a police uniform made any memorable contribution to the rescue effort. The first couple police officers arrived on the scene long before any other rescue personnel did, and they just stood there. They made no effort to find the girl or talk to her and no effort to even look for the man who had fallen.

The first people to search for the man were three foreigners - from Jordan, Syria, and America. They went up and tried to find the man despite Thai officials telling them not to. One of those three didn't even get to the scene until AFTER the police got there, and yet he was the first one to get as close as possible to the man without rock-climbing/harness equipment. Until that moment, none of the Thai police or officials even knew whether the man could be reached, yet they were all still standing around at the bottom of the falls.

I'll repeat that - when the officials arrived on the scene, they couldn't see the man and couldn't know for sure where he was, yet the first officials there made no effort to look for him.

Within 30 minutes, a large number of Thai officials had arrived. They were in police uniforms, military uniforms, medic gear (blue shirted), and some sort of emergency response (orange shirted). Most of them stood around doing nothing. The stretcher that was mentioned in the story just sat lying on the ground for 30 minutes. Eventually the orange shirts and some military went up to the scene (a good 15-20 minutes after the foreigners had already tried), and they very, very slowly began setting up ropes to get in. There was a guy standing with ropes on at least 10 minutes before he made a move to try to get to the man. The foreigners watching expressed a great deal of frustration that everyone seemed to be standing around and the rescue proceeded at a snail's pace.

During this time, quite a few of the Thai first responders spent their time snapping photos. One military-uniformed Thai started snapping photos of the crying girlfriend until the Arabs yelled at him to stop. This was before she knew yet whether her boyfriend was alive or dead.

Nearly an hour or so after the fall, one of the orange-shirted men finally reached the body. From the vantage point of the foreigners watching, he appeared to judge him dead by sight without taking any vital signs. They can't be certain of this, but if any vitals were taken or any attempt at medical care was given, it was done in the blink of an eye. When he started moving the man, he lifted him by the arms like you would drag a body, not as you would move a medical patient. Based on the length of time it took them to finally view the body, I don't see how they could have made any determination of how quickly he died.

Communication with the girlfriend was difficult because she spoke no Thai and almost no English. However, it was the two Arab guys, some farang's Thai wife, and some random Thai tourists who made the main effort to console and comfort her. An official-looking Thai woman eventually arrived on the scene who appeared to want to take that role. Until then, pretty much all the first responders simply ignored her and talked/joked and took pictures among themselves. Nearly an hour and a half after the fall, two Spanish-speaking tourists arrived on the scene to help comfort and translate. They had been flagged down off the main road by one of the foreign tourists who went out looking for a Spanish speaker to help, not by any of the Thai officials.

More than an hour after the police first arrived, guys in orange jumpsuits with lots of equipment arrived on the scene. They were called the "Highway Rescue Patrol" or something like that. They had the most professional look of anyone there, and they're the ones who actually got the body down. However, they were obviously far too late.

Overall, the entire effort made sense if it was viewed as a "body recovery operation" from the very beginning and any hope of medical attention was already ruled out. That would lead to a slow, cautious approach where time was not important and safety was the main criteria. However, that determination had to have been made long before the man was even spotted. And it was certainly a survivable fall, depending on his orientation coming off the top.

I'm cringing to think of what the autopsy will reveal. Hope that it was massive head trauma and he died a speedy death.

Thanks for sharing what really happened since we will never read in newsarticle or hear in thainews about thai incompetence and the disgusting behaviour of the so called uniformed personell taking pics of a grieving girl, making jokes and as usual just standing doing nothing ... dont expect any help in Thailand if something should happen to you !

Edited March 29, 2015 by Johnny S

[monkeycountry]

Park officials said several accidents have happened at the spot.

But of course they have, and nothing has been done to prevent future ones.

Nice job, park officials.

That is not true. They have increased the price in order to discourage tourists from visiting the waterfall and thereby preventing them from falling off the waterfall. Only problem is the price is not yet high enough to discourage all tourists, but this will be changed shortly.

[mauGR1]

I am not 100% sure, but i think i was at the same waterfall some 15 years ago.

I was reaching the top of the waterfall, and there was no platform, no rail, and no warning signs, all completely natural.

I left in disgust seeing a group of tourists climbing down where there was no path, walking on slippery rocks down to the edge of the strong water stream, all of them laughing loud and having fun.

Even a child could have seen that it was an absolutely dangerous thing to do !!.

RIP to the poor guy, and condolences to friends and relatives.

[MaeJoMTB]

Park officials said several accidents have happened at the spot.

But of course they have, and nothing has been done to prevent future ones.

Nice job, park officials.

I believe there is a large sign blocking the path to level 3 marked "no entry without park ranger, penalty 20,000bht"

Has been there at least 2 years (after a 50yo foreign lady got lost in the forest).

As for police doing nothing, they aren't trained to climb down cliff faces.

CM has a special team trained to do that (the MR team invited my to join them in training once) and they are very good at the job.

Best to wait for the trained team than risk the life of other people.

Edited March 30, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[LivinLOS]

Park officials said several accidents have happened at the spot.

But of course they have, and nothing has been done to prevent future ones.

Nice job, park officials.

Nice job, armchair Thaivisa ranter.

Hello: It's a national park. A waterfall. There are clearly marked paths. If tourists go climbing and reaching to get a good selfie en then fall down then there should have been a park official there the whole time to old his hand, that's what you're saying right?

Right.

Let's all have padded walls to every bit of nature to prevent this.

It's sad when it happens, and my thoughts are with his family and friends. But it does happen in the outdoors. Rest in peace.

And when the shoe is on the other foot its 'do thais have a deathwish'..

Then when a westerner does something terminally stupid its.. Why didnt the Thais (with limited budget) do something to prevent this obvious and predictable risk taking.

[Foreign Hiker]

Park officials said several accidents have happened at the spot.

But of course they have, and nothing has been done to prevent future ones.

Nice job, park officials.

I believe there is a large sign blocking the path to level 3 marked "no entry without park ranger, penalty 20,000bht"

Has been there at least 2 years (after a 50yo foreign lady got lost in the forest).

As for police doing nothing, they aren't trained to climb down cliff faces.

CM has a special team trained to do that (the MR team invited my to join them in training once) and they are very good at the job.

Best to wait for the trained team than risk the life of other people.

After the others went up there, even young girls who were there with the medic team were going up and down to the site, just to watch the recovery effort. Some of them looked inexperienced as heck. I'm sure a police officer could have managed just fine.

If it was a safety issue, then they wouldn't have had 20+ people of all types taking pictures up there by the time the whole thing was said and done.

The police officers and others who got there first shouldn't have risked their lives and climbed down any cliff faces before the professionals arrived. But we felt they should have at least gone up and taken a look to see where he was and whether climbing down a cliff face was even necessary to reach him. It was borderline ridiculous that some farang would be the first one up there when first responders had already gotten there and were just waiting at the bottom.

It's a mountain. It's full of waterfalls. And stuff like this happens all the time. It makes sense to me that if you're going to be in the position of being a first responder in such a situation, then it probably would be a good idea to get some sort of relevant training. And at least show some interest in, you know, responding. As others have noted, it's unlikely that the elite climbing team is going to get in place in time to respond to a serious medical emergency...so shouldn't the actual first responders on the mountain at least have some sort of training and take initiative to help?

p.s. - one clarification on what I said earlier about the safety measures at the top - at the very top there isn't a wooden guard rail, it's wooden posts connected by a guard rope with a clear sign. Everything else I said about the other ropes and signs is accurate.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Foreign Hiker

[happy Joe]

Park officials said several accidents have happened at the spot.

But of course they have, and nothing has been done to prevent future ones.

Nice job, park officials.

You would turn this beautiful country secure cage as Reference standards of the country you left ? In this case we are dealing with a stupid and reckless tourist. Its deaths reminds us a basic responsibility and everything that is not forbidden is not necessarily to do.

On any subject we find here the same simplistic reasoning to advocate an organization consisting in Western style. Fortunately Thais ignore your opinions.

If you do not like Thailand and lifestyle, go home !