Chinese style, dozens of people quickly crowded around, but no-body acknowledged the kid. Some other youngsters went off into the village to get the kids parent, but nobody showed up. I tried to pick up the kid to bring him to his mom, where he was pointing, but someone else quickly took him from me and set him back on the pavement. In the meantime, the car driver was making sure that she had my phone number, as a witness to reduce her liability. Then of course, the reason that nobody helps the injured is because of liability. Apparently, if you touch someone that has been hit, you can be held liable for their injuries…so people watch, which is unfortunate. In the end, some old guy (clearly not the kids father) came out of the village and took responsibility (without compassion) for the kid. They loaded up in the back of the car and headed to the hospital to check out the foot. This leads my to the title of the blog “Pedestrians are so dangerous”, which of course is not true. Just like any vulnerable road users (bicyclists, pedestrians, e-bikes etc) most of them get injured or lose their lives when a car hits them. Even so, as a witness, the kid ran directly in front of the car, so it was not the drivers fault per se. Even so, the dangerous element in that equation was not the five year old, but the car. Just because vulnerable road users are killed doesn’t make them dangerous as many propose—e-bike riders and bicyclists are generally not the dangerous ones. Mixing them with cars makes a dangerous situation, but the dangerous element is almost the car. For the record, we were on the way to eat some dog when we witnessed this. Here’s a picture of Avah getting ready to chow down.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Pedestrians are so dangerous
So a couple of days ago I witnessed my first pedestrian-car accident in China. To be correct, I’ve seen the recent aftermath of many ped-car accidents. Pools of blood, shoes (why do shoes fall off when people get hit?), crowds of people gawking and so on. This was the first time I’d the pedestrian actually get struck. Unfortunately, I was behind a car driving (slowly) through a parking lot when one of the poor kids (maybe five years old) that lived in the neighborhood village behind our house cut through some parked cars and was hit. He bounce back and by the time I got to him he was clutching his foot. It turns out that his foot was probably run over as the car slammed on the brakes, providing quite a bit of superficial damage (torn toe nails and road-rashed foot). In typical
Chinese style, dozens of people quickly crowded around, but no-body acknowledged the kid. Some other youngsters went off into the village to get the kids parent, but nobody showed up. I tried to pick up the kid to bring him to his mom, where he was pointing, but someone else quickly took him from me and set him back on the pavement. In the meantime, the car driver was making sure that she had my phone number, as a witness to reduce her liability. Then of course, the reason that nobody helps the injured is because of liability. Apparently, if you touch someone that has been hit, you can be held liable for their injuries…so people watch, which is unfortunate. In the end, some old guy (clearly not the kids father) came out of the village and took responsibility (without compassion) for the kid. They loaded up in the back of the car and headed to the hospital to check out the foot. This leads my to the title of the blog “Pedestrians are so dangerous”, which of course is not true. Just like any vulnerable road users (bicyclists, pedestrians, e-bikes etc) most of them get injured or lose their lives when a car hits them. Even so, as a witness, the kid ran directly in front of the car, so it was not the drivers fault per se. Even so, the dangerous element in that equation was not the five year old, but the car. Just because vulnerable road users are killed doesn’t make them dangerous as many propose—e-bike riders and bicyclists are generally not the dangerous ones. Mixing them with cars makes a dangerous situation, but the dangerous element is almost the car. For the record, we were on the way to eat some dog when we witnessed this. Here’s a picture of Avah getting ready to chow down.
Chinese style, dozens of people quickly crowded around, but no-body acknowledged the kid. Some other youngsters went off into the village to get the kids parent, but nobody showed up. I tried to pick up the kid to bring him to his mom, where he was pointing, but someone else quickly took him from me and set him back on the pavement. In the meantime, the car driver was making sure that she had my phone number, as a witness to reduce her liability. Then of course, the reason that nobody helps the injured is because of liability. Apparently, if you touch someone that has been hit, you can be held liable for their injuries…so people watch, which is unfortunate. In the end, some old guy (clearly not the kids father) came out of the village and took responsibility (without compassion) for the kid. They loaded up in the back of the car and headed to the hospital to check out the foot. This leads my to the title of the blog “Pedestrians are so dangerous”, which of course is not true. Just like any vulnerable road users (bicyclists, pedestrians, e-bikes etc) most of them get injured or lose their lives when a car hits them. Even so, as a witness, the kid ran directly in front of the car, so it was not the drivers fault per se. Even so, the dangerous element in that equation was not the five year old, but the car. Just because vulnerable road users are killed doesn’t make them dangerous as many propose—e-bike riders and bicyclists are generally not the dangerous ones. Mixing them with cars makes a dangerous situation, but the dangerous element is almost the car. For the record, we were on the way to eat some dog when we witnessed this. Here’s a picture of Avah getting ready to chow down.
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