I can’t seem to find an English translation, but a quick summary, cyclist is in a head on collision accident with a fast and furious scooter in the Taichung 3 Peaks Challenge. It took 45 minutes for the ambulances to arrive at the scene. Also, no race organization workers anywhere in sight. It was cyclists passing by that had called for the ambulances. A total 4 hours for the injured cyclist to arrive at the necessary hospital to receive treatment.
The race org is under fire from netizens about how each person participating paid a registration fee. The org had received over 4000-5000 registered participants, but couldn’t spend that money to close the roads?
40 mins for the ambulance to arrive. Another few hours to the nearest hospital which didn’t have the equipment to operate and then another 40 minutes to the next hospital where she was pronounced dead.
She left behind her daughter who made the initial post on a cycling FB group and her husband.
They can’t close the roads, they don’t close the roads, they won’t close the roads. Its not necessarily the event organizers fault since this could happen on any weekend ride and local government and traffic authorities probably refuse all road closure requests. Where they are at fault is they should have people on the road with radios in case of incidents. A ten minute response window isn’t much to ask.
This, plus traffic police. I’m tired of having close calls on my motorcycle, and yes, I’ve been at fault a couple of times, but most of the times it’s just that somebody is doing something really stupid, selfish, or both things, and frequently lacks not only common sense but skills.
Years ago I noticed more police presence in BeiYi and probably number 3 and number 7, but it’s obviously not enough. Starting from better education and harder tests, and having more severe punishments to those who not just break he rules but do it recklessly, should make some difference. I see police traps for people who make a left turn here and there, but I have never seen police chasing cars that pass the double yellow line or that jump a traffic light. Forget about seeing a mother being stopped for riding with three kids with no helmet, that’s not going to happen in this century.
As a rider and motorcyclist, I try to do my best for keeping a safe distance with smaller vehicles, and I get pissed off on a daily basis with the retarded huge motorized community in Taiwan. It’s like India with a better and deceiving image of modernity.
Yes, you’re right. Race organizers often have EMTs and neutral support vehicles driving along the route as participants are riding.
So people are speculating why it took so long for the emergency vehicles to arrive and why other race participants had to call 119 on their own for an ambulance.
On the Apple Daily article, one guy left a comment saying he was a participant on race day and the emergency vehicles had their hands full because of other incidents.
I’ve done this route with a few friends and the descent from the second peak is pretty dangerous. The road is not well paved and there’s steep ramps going straight into tight hair pins.
It sometimes depends on the race org on how prepared they want to be for emergency response. I’ve had a mechanical during these kinds of events and 3-4 vehicles stopped to ask if I was ok or hurt. Two of them race org and the others were support vehicles for participants.