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Bangkok’s ‘body snatchers’ are no science-fiction novel or horror movie creation. Cruising Bangkok’s streets in their distinctive white utes, the young volunteers of the Por Tek Teung Foundation are the city’s first line of defence against the death and mayhem that cloaks the capital’s streets. In a city notorious for its massive traffic jams and inadequate infrastructure, the body snatchers provide the only accident and emergency rescue services available.

Government emergency services are virtually non-existent and official indifference has forced the city’s 10 million residents to turn to private charities, such as Por Tek Teung, in times of crisis. Founded by Chinese immigrants in 1909, Por Tek Teung began by collecting corpses and providing free funeral services for Bangkok’s poor and destitute.

While still providing these services, the foundation’s duties have broadened to handle everything from fires, floods and aeroplane crashes to murders, suicides and man hunts. The body snatchers take a certain amount of pride in their body counts-the outside of Ruamkatanyu’s donation centre, a smaller rescue group founded in 1970, boasts lurid photos of the mutilated, burned and dismembered bodies they have collected. The grisly pictures attract a steady stream of onlookers and help drive donations. This public goodwill has helped the foundations set up offices throughout the country to help in times of need, but it is on the roads of the nation that most of their energy is consumed.

Mechai Kamteenan has worked for Por Tek Teung for almost eight years and, like any good body snatcher, he has a nose for trouble. Driving on one of Bangkok’s motorways, he quickly spots a ute racing down the road, weaving in and out of lanes. “At this time of night, you see a lot of drunks on the roads. The police rarely stop them and when they do people just pay bribes, so there’s no real deterrent,” says Mechai, as he begins to follow the ute with his lights and siren on to warn other drivers. Mechai tries to keep up with the ute, which reaches speeds greater than 140km/h, slaloming between other vehicles.

“Maybe we’ll get a corpse!” says Mechai, excitedly. As the ute reaches a sharp curve, his prediction almost comes true. The vehicle bounces into concrete barriers, sending sparks and pieces of the bodywork flying. The driver quickly hits the brakes, forcing Mechai to swerve out the way to avoid a collision. As Mechai pulls off the road, the ute speeds off.

“He was lucky this time,” says Mechai, desperately trying to catch his breath. “But if he does that again, he may have to come home in one of our trucks.”

Unlike most of Por Tek Teung’s workers, Mechai is paid for his time. Receiving US$400 (AU$613) a month, he spends six nights a week working 12-hour shifts. Besides helping to collect corpses, he also videotapes and photographs the dead as a ‘public service’. Many of his images find their way into Thailand’s sensational newspapers, that seem to revel in the blood and gore that spills onto the roads. Many young men volunteer to help in the belief that they will earn merit towards their next lives, and some volunteer simply because the work is exciting.

But while Mechai and his fellow body snatchers are proud of their work, they are incapable of providing professional rescue services. Few of Por Tek Teung’s staff have medical training, and what little knowledge they do have can’t help some of the traumatic injuries they face. Almost 20 per cent of survivors from car accidents in Thailand die on their way to hospital, most from chronic bleeding or airway obstruction. All Por Tek Teung can do in such situations is shovel patients into the back of their utes and hope to get them to a hospital in time. But with Bangkok’s gridlocked traffic, even that can be an impossible task-especially as few Bangkok drivers are generous enough to make way for rescue vehicles in an emergency. Until recently, many hospitals refused to accept patients from the foundation without proof that medical bills could be paid, forcing Por Tek Teung to establish a medical fund to cover expenses.

The increasing need for Por Tek Teung’s services has paralleled the country’s recent rapid economic growth. Thailand’s economic miracle has flooded the streets with new vehicles, but with the prosperity that the automobile represents has come a horrendous human toll.

Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for Thais aged 15 to 40. On a typical day, the streets will be littered with incidents that take lives at a rate of two per hour. The roads have become so dangerous that the Health Ministry now considers them a major health risk. Not counting the human cost, the government calculates economic losses from the carnage at around US$360 million (AU$552 million) a year.

It is the bloody and twisted debris from this destruction that Por Tek Teung has to clean up.The organisation’s utes prowl the city 24/7 in search of accidents and corpses. The city is divided into three sections-with Por Tek Teung and Ruamkatanyu taking turns patrolling the different sectors. The two competing rescue foundations have made headlines over the years for fighting over bodies at accidents. For some, collecting corpses is a matter of pride, and many in Por Tek Teung consider Ruamkatanyu an unruly upstart after a piece of the action. While a peace agreement between the two foundations has eased tensions, they still relish the limelight that comes with a good night’s body snatching. To get to an accident first requires patience and an understanding of Bangkok’s roads. Por Tek Teung utes hover like vultures along major highways and roads known for their high death count. Weekend car and motorcycle racing always attracts a body snatcher or two, waiting for an inevitable death. Tuned to police radio, Por Tek arrives at an accident scene in minutes. The job has claimed the lives of several volunteers. “We know it’s dangerous work,” says Mechai, “but someone has to do this…the police won’t, the government won’t, so it’s up to us to give assistance to these people.”

The final service the foundation offers victims lies near Sathorn Road, in the heart of Bangkok’s Silom business district. In a field at the end of a narrow lane is the Por Tek Teung cemetery for unidentified and uncollected corpses. Burials are traditionally Chinese-every five years the tombs are emptied and the bodies cremated to make room for the endless supply of new bodies.

Surrounded by sparkling new office towers that proclaim Thailand’s status as a newly industrialised country (NIC), the overgrown graveyard-littered with garbage and broken-down cars-remains a shocking symbol of the price of prosperity.

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