Phuket taxi driver allegedly blocked ambulance in which patient died
published : 29 Apr 2025 at 10:07
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Achadthaya Chuenniran
A taxi driver in Phuket was charged with blocking an ambulance which was rushing a heart attack patient to hospital who died on the way.
The incident happened on Sunday morning when Pradit Dumlak, 62, passed out in a durian orchard in Kathu district.
Relatives of the man, who had a heart disease, called an ambulance from Patong Hospital at 8.15am Sunday. It was reported that the ambulance was blocked by a taxi on the narrow Kamala-Patong Road on its way to the hospital.
Eyewitnesses said that the taxi driver did not make way and tried to cut in on the ambulance to avoid a parked vehicle. At that time, paramedics were trying to resuscitate the elderly man. Paramedics pronounced him dead at 8.45am Sunday.
Local police checked camera footage and called the taxi driver for questioning. Police then charged the driver with blocking an emergency vehicle.
Vocabulary
- block: to stop someone/ something from moving through or along something else - ปิดกั้น, กีดขวาง
- eyewitness: someone who sees something happen - พยานในเหตุการณ์
- narrow: not wide; having a small distance from one side to the other, especially in comparison with the length - แคบ
- orchard: an area of land where fruit trees are grown - สวนหรือแปลงผลไม้
- passed out: became unconscious - หมดสติ
- pronounced dead: officially confirmed to have died -
- resuscitate (verb): to make an unconscious person start to breathe again; to revive; to bring back to life - ช่วยชีวิต, ช่วยให้่ฟื้นชีพ, ฟื้นฟู, ทำให้เกิดขึ้นอีก
- vehicle: a machine that you travel in or on, especially one with an engine that travels on roads, e.g., a car, bus, van, truck, etc. - ยานพาหนะ
