Congratulations to this taxi driver for becoming the new most hated man in Korea:
This image captured from YouTube shows the black box footage of a minor fender bender between a taxi and an ambulance that occurred in Seoul’s Gangdong-gu, June 8.
Public anger has been boiling up over a taxi driver who stopped an ambulance carrying an emergency patient from going to a hospital while demanding that the ambulance driver deal with a minor fender bender between the two cars first.
The minor collision occurred in Seoul’s southeastern Gangdong-gu, June 8. According to the son of the patient, the ambulance driver told the cabbie that he would settle the dispute after taking the patient to the hospital, but the cabbie kept demanding that the car accident be handled first and forced the ambulance to stay in the middle of the road.
While the two drivers quarreled for about 10 minutes, another ambulance arrived and took the patient, a lung cancer patient in her 80s. In the end, the patient died in the emergency room, five hours after she arrived at the hospital.
In a petition the son posted on the website run by the presidential office, he claimed the patient missed the so-called golden time needed for timely treatment due to the taxi driver.
An ambulance company operator and eight drivers are accused of profiting from the transportation of singers who were running late, police said Thursday.
They are suspected of having carried — with sirens and lights on — two unidentified trot singers to concert venues and airports in Ulsan and surrounding areas dozens of times between June 2015 and November 2017
It is illegal for ambulance drivers to turn on emergency alarms and transport healthy people.They are also suspected of driving the ambulances beyond the designated business area of Ulsan without permission. [Korea Times]
This makes me wonder if anywhere else would charge an ambulance driver for running a red light while trying to get an infant to the hospital?:
An ambulance carrying an infant suffering a possible medical emergency and an SUV collided at an intersection in Songpa-gu, Seoul, early Jan. 1. / Yonhap
The driver of an ambulance carrying an infant suffering a possible medical emergency faces prosecution for ignoring traffic lights after the vehicle and an SUV collided.
The incident happened about 2 a.m. on January 1 at an intersection south of Olympic Bridge in Songpa-gu, Seoul. The ambulance, with its siren sounding, was coming from North Chungcheong Province and heading to Seoul Asan Hospital. It was also carrying the three-month-old child’s parents and a nurse. The infant was in a critical condition with fluid on the lungs.
The ambulance ran a red light before the collision with the SUV. Police said the SUV driver’s blood-alcohol level was 0.12 percent, enough for license revocation. No one was seriously injured in the crash.
Songpa police booked both drivers without arrest ― the ambulance driver for ignoring the traffic light and the SUV driver for driving under the influence of alcohol. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but long time residents in Korea are probably used to seeing how few cars bother to get out of the way of ambulances with their warning sirens and lights on as well.
