Deadly ambulance drivers
In recent weeks, there have been several ambulances involved in fender benders at intersections. From video surveillance of the accidents, it appears that in each case the ambulance drivers had run a red light. Granted, ambulances and other emergency vehicles by law have the right of way when responding to emergency calls and their lights and sirens are switched on.
However, in no way should that give drivers of emergency vehicles license to recklessly barrel through red lights at breakneck speed.
As a former emergency medical technician (EMT) who worked briefly as an ambulance driver in the US, one of the first things I was warned about by my company was to never assume that the drivers in other vehicles would see my flashing lights or hear my siren and always yield to me, especially at intersections. We were required to slow down when approaching an intersection (particularly when going through a red light), and even come to a complete stop if necessary to make sure it was safe before proceeding. Causing an accident by carelessly zooming through a red light could have subjected my company to lawsuits, lengthy court cases and costly settlements.
Apparently, ambulance companies in Taiwan worry little about such matters. At least one would never guess that they think twice about it given the suicidal manner in which many of their drivers bomb through red lights.
Ambulance drivers, perhaps more than anyone else, ought to place the safety of themselves, their occupants and others on the road as their highest priority.
After several fatal accidents involving tour and overland buses, the government has finally begun to crack down on bus companies and drivers. It needs to do the same to ambulance companies and drivers who cause avoidable accidents.
If ambulance drivers are given free rein to recklessly gun their vehicles through intersections and red lights at dangerously high speeds, it is only a matter of time until some unfortunate innocent victim is going to be tragically killed by those whose job it is to save the lives of victims of other accidents.
Wayne Schams
Pingtung
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past