Pray you never have an emergency in Taiwan

Seen today near Nantou: an ambulance with sirens and lights. Most Taiwanese drivers went through their usual routine of pretending not to notice it approaching from behind, and not giving it any room. Nothing new there. But when it reached the toll port my jaw dropped:

Needless to say that the ETC lane was completely empty. Pray you’ll never need one.

A year or two ago right in front of where I live, I saw an ambulance with siren blaring stuck in a traffic jam for at least ten minutes because a street demonstration in which Chen Shuibian was participating was entering the main road from the next T-junction. First of all, the police had failed to inform the public by signs or any means that a demonstation would happen here and drivers should take an alternative route. The police could easily have ordered a break in the demonstration to let the ambulance through, but no…A-Bian takes priority :thumbsdown: . I hope the person being carried in the ambulance didn’t actually die as a result.

Maybe the ambulance should try and drive on the sidewalk to go around. Oh, wait…

When you see the way people are treated here it’s no wonder the level of animal abuse is so high.

Just yesterday in broad daylight, an ambulance came up behind some cars at a red light at a small intersection. Very loud and obvious. Almost no one moved. From one other side of the intersection (T), we started motioning to the traffic to move and pointing at the ambulance. A few moved. One car, directly in front of the ambulance, never moved. It inched forward a couple of times. Once it was able, the ambulance went around that car. Multiple people in that car and none of them could figure out what was going on or what to do. In my opinion, that level of demonstrated skill falls below what’s needed to be licensed to operate a vehicle. Agree with OP.

Maybe the ambulances need snow plow attachments.

Maybe the ambulances need snow plow attachments.[/quote]

yep :smiley: … been saying it for years, ambulances need forklifts on the front, try pretending you haven’t noticed the ambulance when you’re car’s on it’s roof asshole!..

then again anyone unlucky enough to have been injured and then placed in a Taiwanese ambulance by a Taiwanese ambulance crew is more than likely to to beyond rescue anyway… I’ve seen building rubble loaded onto a vehicle with greater care and professionalism than TW ambulance crews treat patients… :s

Interestingly (or not) in the UK ambulances are not allowed to force cars through red light, and are supposed to turn off the siren when stuck behind a car at a red light. Very urgent cases (organ transplant material and the like) would be helicoptered or more likely accompanied (where I’m from anyway) by police motorcycle escort. (What are all those coppers on BMWs here actually doing!?) On the other hand, I have driven through a red light a small distance to allow an ambulance through in the UK, and in the extremely unlikely event a cop would be so obtuse as to give me a ticket he would be the most famous cop in Britain I can assure you. It’s just what you do as a human being. Person dying in back of ambulance. Risk extremely small chance of £60 fine and three points to help save a life. Not a second thought.

When I did my driving instruction we were even taught how to deal with an emergency vehicle approaching from behind. (For example, don’t just stop if there’s no way through for them, keep going at a reasonable pace until there’s space enough for you to pull over and the cops/ambulance/fire brigade to actually get past - that sort of thing…)

I agree with the OP, but many people here have simply never been taught to drive, merely how to operate a car. (Witness the taxi drivers destroying their CV joints by slamming automatics in and out of Neutral at the lights; pumping the accelerator when under way so that the gearbox never locks up mechanically, thus wasting fuel, etc - they’re not doing that on purpose, they want to save money not waste it!)

[quote=“Lord Lucan”]
I agree with the OP, but many people here have simply never been taught to drive, merely how to operate a car.[/quote]Almost right. They are merely taught how to pass the driving test, nothing more. Confucian education system at work again.

I think his point was that the “driving” test is in fact a car manipulation test, and controlling your car is about 10% of driving. The other 90% being road awareness, safety, knowledge of the law, having the right reflexes, and so on.

You could teach people in England to only be able to pass the driving test … but in order to do so they’d still have to learn how to really drive. The test here doesn’t imply that.

[quote=“Brendon”]I think his point was that the “driving” test is in fact a car manipulation test, and controlling your car is about 10% of driving. The other 90% being road awareness, safety, knowledge of the law, having the right reflexes, and so on.

You could teach people in England to only be able to pass the driving test … but in order to do so they’d still have to learn how to really drive. The test here doesn’t imply that.[/quote]

A good point. Never mind proper instruction, a proper test would force people to learn at least something. The biggest difference is the motorbike test.