Police are second to none...except taxis. And pedestrians. And red lights, and....

So one thing that's very noticeable is the police and their lack of authority.  On my first day in Busan I saw a taxi cut off a cop and I was completely shocked.  Now I see it and I'm amazed but not even remotely shocked.

I asked my co-teacher if people are supposed to pull over for cop cars, and he said "I don't know the right saying for this...they are second to none?"

So yeah, cops should have the right of way, but they don't.  At all.

I've seen them stop at red lights, stop for pedestrians, as well as get passed by taxis, motorcycles, mopeds, and regular cars.  I guess the only things I haven't seen pass them are pedestrians and buses.  But pedestrians are slow and buses have their own lane so they don't count.

One morning I got up and traffic was backed up as far as I could see in one direction.  Obviously something must have happened, likely an accident considering the crazy drivers here.  So a fire truck comes through with its lights and sirens on...and sits at a red light.  Then it starts going...and sits in traffic.  Instead of driving down the wrong side, or people pulling over, it just SAT THERE with everyone else.  That's a slight lie, once they saw the cluster f*** in the intersection they went on the wrong side for a minute to get through then pulled back over.  Really they can't get caught at two red lights...

Piece of advice, don't get seriously hurt in Korea, you'll never make it to the hospital in time.

As a final note let me point out that this was in the morning, while I was getting ready for work.  I didn't try to grab my camera at first because I figured there was no way I was going to catch it...well I did miss it at the red light but this was a solid two minutes after I first looked and saw it.  When I finished getting ready and went downstairs about 5 or 10 minutes later it had made it to the front of the building (my apartment is on the side...).  Congrats dude on gaining about 50 yards in 5 minutes!