The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...on-street.html

CCTV video with English subtitles (Warning: Extremely graphic!).

[touchring]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

More reports:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/20...t_13909773.htm

According to reports the van driver had just split up from his girlfriend and was talking on his mobile phone when he hit the girl.
"If she is dead, I may pay only about 20,000 yuan ($3,125). But if she is injured, it may cost me hundreds of thousands yuan," said the driver over the phone to the media, before he gave himself up to the police.



When she ran from shop to shop for the identity of the girl, the rag collector was told by a number of shopkeepers to mind her own business.

[aaron]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

I witnessed something similar in Taiwan, although not nearly as serious. An old man tipped over his scooter. He was too old to be riding a scooter, in my opinion. Nobody wanted to stop to help him. I was about to walk over when some young guys (20 years old or so) stopped to help him back up. The incident was disturbing to me.

I asked my buddies about this. There is a huge fear of being sued by the very person you are helping. The fear is justified, as everybody seems to know somebody who had to pay (same pronunciation in Chinese) for an accident. Now, every car is equipped with cameras that can record accidents because you can get sued for anything.

Good deeds DO go punished there. I can only imagine that it is worse in Mainland China where the jackpot mentality seems to be even stronger.

----
Another anecdote... About 20 years ago I was riding my motorcycle in Taiwan, in the rain, acting like a stupid 20 year-old. A car stopped in front me and I wiped out. A taxi cab ran over my hand from behind. I ended up being relatively fine, mostly embarrassed that I was so stupid. Whenever I told the story to Taiwanese, they always said I should have sued or got money from the taxi driver. The guy swerved to avoid my head, I explain. And, it was certainly not their fault. ---> That did not matter, I could have gotten money!

[swannmex]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

Is this "the real America" ? http://www.opposingviews.com/i/socie...embers-charged

[LorenS]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

In my visit to China it was my distinct impression that bicyclists and pedestrians are responsible for getting out of the way of the motor vehicles.

I think this is at least partially a result of the fact that few there can afford cars and that no one who can afford a car would deign to walk. It may even explain the "compensation" culture. Those with cars are the equivalent to the "rich" boogy man here in the US.

Maybe I just got it wrong, but that's the feeling I got.

[aaron]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

Is this "the real America" ? http://www.opposingviews.com/i/socie...embers-charged

Irrelevant. The topic is not about child abuse.

[touchring]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

I witnessed something similar in Taiwan, although not nearly as serious. An old man tipped over his scooter. He was too old to be riding a scooter, in my opinion. Nobody wanted to stop to help him. I was about to walk over when some young guys (20 years old or so) stopped to help him back up. The incident was disturbing to me.

Taiwan has changed tremendously over the past 20 years with democracy and human rights activism.

Anyway, I always had the impression that Guangdong is more developed and hence "more civilized". And that such a thing could only have happened in "bandit filled" and poverty stricken Shaanxi or Henan provinces. So it appears that this could happen anywhere in China, even on the streets of Shanghai.

[aaron]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

Good Samaritan laws in the United States must have come from somewhere. They need them in Taiwan and China.

[shiny!]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

I went on a tour of Europe with a bunch of high school students in 1974. In Rome, we noticed that every time we tried to cross the streets, cars way down the street speeded up like they were trying to hit us. We asked a Roman what was going on. He said that in Italy, cars have right-of-way. Drivers seeing a group of people with cameras hanging around their necks figured that we were wealthy tourists. If they could hit us, they could sue us and get rich.

Circa 1996 in Albuquerque, NM, there was a car accident in the street outside my chiropractor's office. He and his wife were on their way in to work when it happened. One of the drivers needed medical assistance. My chiropractor, an extremely kind and compassionate man, was afraid to provide it and instructed his wife on what to do, instead. He was concerned that if things didn't turn out well, the driver would sue him and he would lose his license to practice medicine.

[c1ue]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

Deplorable, but understandable.

The driver made a purely rational, if sociopathic, decision.

If you want to complain, point at the laws which make taking a human life cheaper than merely damaging it.

The 'solution' in the United States has been to make taking a human life more expensive than damaging it by giving the prosecution the leeway to make all sorts of 'lifetime earnings' claims, and the loophole is the same as is the case here in China: ultimately a wealthy enough individual or corporation simply isn't materially affected by the damages.

[touchring]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

Deplorable, but understandable.

The driver made a purely rational, if sociopathic, decision.

If you want to complain, point at the laws which make taking a human life cheaper than merely damaging it.

The 'solution' in the United States has been to make taking a human life more expensive than damaging it by giving the prosecution the leeway to make all sorts of 'lifetime earnings' claims, and the loophole is the same as is the case here in China: ultimately a wealthy enough individual or corporation simply isn't materially affected by the damages.

I hope you have watched the clip. That the driver ran away is not surprising - which will happen anywhere in the world. What is surprising is that none of the 18 passerby bothered to even take a second look or call the police or ambulance.

Even more intriguing is when the rag collector went from shop to shop looking for the mother, she was scolded by the shopkeepers for being busybody.

This maybe an isolated incident but may imply what may happen should there be an economic disaster in China. Widespread looting and banditry.

[c1ue]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

I hope you have watched the clip. That the driver ran away is not surprising - which will happen anywhere in the world. What is surprising is that none of the 18 passerby bothered to even take a second look or call the police or ambulance.

Maybe things are different in Singapore, but they aren't in the US.

For every act of human kindness - which exist in both China and the US - there are also acts of indifference.

[swannmex]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

OK let's try this one.. Stabbed hero dies as more than 20 people stroll past him

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/q...#ixzz1b41NVV56

A heroic homeless man, stabbed after saving a Queens woman from a knife-wielding attacker, lay dying in a pool of blood for more than an hour as nearly 25 people indifferently strolled past him, a shocking surveillance video obtained by The Post reveals.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/q...#ixzz1b41eyQ3g

[Verrocchio]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

The indifference is shocking. I'm also appalled that the parent would allow a toddler to wander out into an alley as busy as that one.

[touchring]

Re: The Real China: Chinese toddler run over twice after being left on street

Video captured of a dog helping another dog that got run over.

Astonishingly, someone actually called the ambulance! This is Chile, and Chile isn't an affluent country.