Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Binch Lover]

Is Korea the only place in the world where drivers don't get out of the way of ambulances?? Today, I saw a car stopped at a pedestrian crossing that refused to move even though the ambulance's siren was on and it was beeping the car. Such lack of awareness I have never seen in my life.

[MarionG]

I've seen the same thing happen in the US, and it's probably for the same reason...noone that I know is in the ambulance, so what do I care?

I remember once seeing a cop coming down the center median on a freeway in LA, on his way to a terrible accident that was just ahead-no other responders had arrived yet. Some j-a was on his bike (i.e. BIG hog) blocking his way. The cop had his lights and siren going, the guy on the bike, turned around, looked for a second, flipped him the bird, and wouldn't move.

The cop got out of his car, grabbed the guy on the bike, cuffed him to the center fence, then pushed the bike out of his way with his cruiser. I doubt it did the bike any good. Drivers in the cars all around started cheering...

[CentralCali]

Nope. I've seen it in Monterey, California; San Francisco, California; Washington, DC; Meridian, MS; etc. It never ceases to surprise me, though, as in all of those places, and even here in South Korea, emergency vehicles do have the right of way.

[Binch Lover]

I'm not trying to be inflammatory, but I honestly have never seen it in my home country and I'm pretty sure if somebody did it, other people would probably beat the the shit out of him or her

[Ilsanman]

I have only ever seen it here. And yes, it's disgusting.

[indytrucks]

I've often wondered how many times it has happened where a seriously injured or ill person has died in the back of an ambulance because it was stuck in traffic, or simply because people wouldn't pull over and let the thing pass. Saw it just today at the Seoul tollgate. Ambulance with its siren wailing and lights flashing, trying desperately to weave its way past the wall of traffic that simply wouldn't yield. Sad really.

[jay-shi]

They got CCTV everywhere already and photo-radars.

Why not mount cameras on the ambulances and heavily fine people who stand in their way idly?

Problem solved.

[CentralCali]

Have you ever been to Cannery Row in Monterey, California? I used to live in Monterey. One Saturday, I was shopping on Cannery Row and there was a fire in one of the buildings about two blocks away from my friend and me. A tourist just stopped his car right in the middle of the intersection (the car had out of state plates and there was no military base sticker {Monterey's also home to a couple of bases}). He was blocking the fire engines from getting through. A police officer came to the tourist and yelled, "This is real! It's not Disneyland! Move your vehicle now or you will go to a real jail!"

Have you ever watched those C.O.P.S or extreme chase videos? Every time I see them, I wonder why the drivers aren't pulling over to get out of the way of the police cars.

As to why it happens here...my guess is that there's practically no enforcement of the Road Traffic Law. On occasion, you will see traffic offense crackdowns but those are few and far between.

[howie2424]

When I first came to Korea I too found this practice disgusting, so I asked a good Korean friend of mine why people don't make way for ambulances here. He said that years ago folks used to get out of the way just like we do in the west. Then there was a television documentary which exposed the fact that the ambulance services were routinely used by the rich and powerful as taxi services when they needed to get somewhere quick. Slip the driver a few hundred thousand won, he flips on the siren and you get where you're going in no time. After that he said people just stopped moving for them. Can't verify the veracity of the story, but given the rampant corruption I see everywhere else in this place, I wouldn't doubt it. I'm not defending the way people behave now, but this could go some distance toward explaining what seems to us to be sickening behavior.

[Ilsanman]

Even if true, it doesn't excuse them. I guess we should punish the sick and dying b/c a bunch of fat old rich people abuse the law.

[GoldMember]

There are no "Ambulances" in Korea. It's just a meat wagon with a siren.

[Young FRANKenstein]