Paid Samaritan

Paid Good Samaritans

The article “RM10 fine for staying too long on expressway” published on Friday 21, January 2005 brought me to write about my concern on our roads being infested by tow truck operators and their “Call Man”. They can be frequently seen with their vehicles parked along the road sides waiting for cars to stall or an accident to occur. Though the tow truck operator would be able to provide immediate mechanical or towing assistance, it wasn’t until I attended a first aid course I realized that their presence and actions sometimes may be detrimental. The first aid instructor started the session with a slide showing an accident Scene. He then asked us if we were to call the Police, the Fire Department and the Ambulance, which one of these agencies would arrive first, on scene. The opinions of the participants were divided between the three. He then asked for a show of hands starting with the Police. There were quite a large number of hands in the air when the next slide showed the word police being striked through indicating the police are not the first ones that would reach the scene. To my surprise, those who chose the remaining two options, the fire department and the ambulance were also wrong as they were striked through as well. For a second we were left wondering what the answer would be and then the next slide showed a picture of a tow truck that caused everyone to burst into laughter, applauding and agreeing with the instructor.

He then went on to explain that competition among tow truck companies has increased the number of “call man” on our roads. This range from dedicated call mans who usually drive modified vehicles with yellow and red beacon lights at the back of their cars to taxi or lorry drivers or sometimes even the odd traffic police men. They are linked with trunk radios and hand phones to immediately relay the news of a stalled car or an accident in the area of their coverage. This is the reason why even if it was a single vehicle accident crashing into the divider, there would be at least five to six cars parked along the stretch within the first five minutes. The first operator that reaches the scene would use all means to secure the towing deal which includes sending the victim to the hospital in their own vehicles.

Though this can be viewed as a Good Samaritan act, it is also important to note that the first rule in first aid indicates that an injured victim should not be moved unnecessarily unless there are pending hazards, i.e risk of explosions. A trauma patient, if moved improperly may result in paralysis, if not death. How many tow truckers are certified first aiders? Usually little or no proper first aid is given on scene or on the ways to the medical facility.

The awareness on first aid is very low here among the general public and professional pre-hospital care is almost non-existent in Malaysia. The public blames the ambulance for arriving late on scene to justify their decision to move and self transport the victim, ignorant of conditions of when this would cause more harm than good.




On the other hand the agencies involved in providing ambulance services tend to blame the public for being irresponsible on the road; not giving way to ambulances or clogging up the emergency lane; to justify their poor service. Hence failing to take actions to improve the current low standards of emergency medical services in the country.

The losers in this scenario are the victims. Nobody wakes up in the morning and chooses to be a victim of road traffic accident. You may have access to the best trauma surgeon in the country, known for bringing people back from the bringe of death. But what are the chances of getting to such facilities in good shape if you were to crash your vehicle on Malaysian roads? Does it not defeat the purpose when the first to arrive and render assistance is most likely an untrained person, whose primary objective is a financial commission from towing your vehicle? I can only hope and pray that I’ll not be a road traffic accident victim one day, but if I was on scene for one, at least I would know what to do. Do you?