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| This image captured from YouTube shows the black box footage of a minor fender bender between a taxi and an ambulance that occurred in Seoul's Gangdong-gu, June 8. |
By Jun Ji-hye
Public anger has been boiling up over a taxi driver who stopped an ambulance carrying an emergency patient from going to a hospital while demanding that the ambulance driver deal with a minor fender bender between the two cars first.
The minor collision occurred in Seoul's southeastern Gangdong-gu, June 8. According to the son of the patient, the ambulance driver told the cabbie that he would settle the dispute after taking the patient to the hospital, but the cabbie kept demanding that the car accident be handled first and forced the ambulance to stay in the middle of the road.
While the two drivers quarreled for about 10 minutes, another ambulance arrived and took the patient, a lung cancer patient in her 80s. In the end, the patient died in the emergency room, five hours after she arrived at the hospital.
In a petition the son posted on the website run by the presidential office, he claimed the patient missed the so-called golden time needed for timely treatment due to the taxi driver.
"The ambulance driver and my wife tried so hard to persuade the taxi driver so we could take my mother to the hospital first. But the cabbie kept demanding the fender bender be settled first, saying that he will take the heat if the patient dies," the son wrote.
The son claimed the taxi driver should be punished firmly for stopping the ambulance at a time when there was not a moment to lose.
The petition, which was posted July 3, has been signed by more than 550,000 citizens as of 1 p.m. Monday.
Cheong Wa Dae is required to give an official response to petitions that generate more than 200,000 signatures in a month.
The son also uploaded the black box footage of the accident on YouTube, where it has generated more than 280,000 views.
A police investigation is underway into the accident, according to Gangdong Police Station.
Police officials said their investigation is focusing on finding out whether the accident was related to the cause of death of the patient.
