The emergency vehicle driver phoned in the accident himself to Rayong Police and waited at the scene to give a statement. He also directed investigating officers towards a video unit on the front of the emergency vehicle showing just how the freak accident occurred before 7 am on Wednesday morning in Rayong.
An ambulance responding in emergency mode to an accident on Wednesday morning was itself involved in a fatal car smash that took the life of a middle-aged woman who died instantly after she was violently thrown from her small Japanese car which overturned on a busy highway when it impacted with the emergency vehicle hurtling at full speed.
A 54-year-old local authority worker in Eastern Rayong province lost her life early on Wednesday morning as she was driving to work.
The accident occurred when her small car, a white Daihatsu Mira model, was hit at full speed by a rescue vehicle, an ambulance, on the way to respond to another accident in the centre of Rayong.
The ambulance was responding at speed to another accident when it crashed into the Japanese car.
Another accident earlier in which a passenger driver had been trapped inside his vehicle after it was hit by a truck prompted an emergency response
A passenger of another car was reportedly trapped inside the vehicle after being hit by a truck. The emergency vehicle was attached to the Sawangporn Charoen Foundation Rescue Foundation.
The 60-year-old driver who awaited police at the scene of the fatal accident told officers that he had hit the small white car at full force after it appeared before him out of nowhere while travelling as he rushed to the scene of the other accident.
Police from Rayong Police Station led by Police Lieutenant Colonel Nahasulai Chaiyafalan Korn, the Duty Officer, responded to the accident report at 7 am in the morning.
The fatal crash took place near Soi Takad on the Sukhumvit Road in the centre of Rayong and police summoned medical support from nearby Rayong Hospital.
Small white Daihatsu Mira car was obliterated by the impact and left on its head with the bloodied body of its driver found nearby after being thrown out
Police officers found the ambulance involved in the smash damaged at the front of the vehicle. The front windows had been smashed by the driver, a safety officer, after the impact, as he attempted to gain his exit.
Five metres from the ambulance, the police found a white Daihatsu Mira car in a completely destroyed state. It has been obliterated by the force of the impact.
The car was turned upside down on the road. The deceased woman’s body was surrounded by her blood and it was clear from her extensive injuries that she had died on the spot.
A preliminary examination of the body found many injuries but it was nevertheless sent to Rayong Hospital for an autopsy as part of the formal investigation into the accident.
The woman has been named as Ms Apiromrudee Boontem, a 54-year-old employee of the Rayong Administrative Organisation in the Banlaeng sub-district of the province.
60-year-old ambulance driver gave a statement to investigating officers and directed them to a camera located at the front of his emergency vehicle
It is understood she had been travelling to work when the accident occurred.
At the scene, police interviewed the ambulance driver. He provided them with his testimony as to what had occurred.
He said he had been responding to another call out or accident in emergency mode.
He was bringing cutting equipment to that incident when the woman’s car came out in front of him as he was driving at speed along the right-hand side of the road.
He told police that the woman’s car emerged near a U-turn or junction and appeared so suddenly in his lane that he couldn’t apply the brake to his vehicle which rushed on and hit her car at full speed.
The ambulance driver alerted police to the presence of a camera recorder on the front of his vehicle, from which they could retrieve video evidence of the accident as it happened.
Police later retrieved video evidence also from a car travelling behind the ambulance which showed the horrific and whirlwind collision clearly.
Driver phoned in the accident himself and coordinated the response to the initial incident. He was detained by police for further routine questioning
He had immediately phoned the accident into Rayong Police Station after rushing to the woman’s vehicle and discovering that she was already dead on the road.
‘My condolences to the family of the deceased. As for those who were trapped in the car that I was going to help, I coordinated with another set of rescuers to come and bring a cutting machine to that accident. I understand that the passenger driver of that car has been rescued and taken to Rayong Hospital,’ he told reporters.
The white Daihatsu Mira car somersaulted at a 180-degree angle when hit by the ambulance which drove on through. Such was the force that the car ended up on his head on the road, causing the woman to be thrown from it.
Police at the scene said they were ready to detain the driver to progress their investigation which is routine in such situations.
They also said they will be in contact with the family of Ms Apiromrudee to let them know when they would be able to retrieve her body for funeral rites once the autopsy has been completed.
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