Last month, we came across a video of a small child waiting with his father at an intersection. Just as a car was speeding down the road, the father wanted to pull the child across the street, but the kid had the good sense to hold him back. Jaywalking can be dangerous, after all, especially when you don’t look on both sides of the road.
How dangerous, exactly? A parent and child in Nanjing found out last week. Check out the video. The girl injured her spine and is still in the hospital; the mother fractured her legs.
Respect traffic rules, people.
(H/T China Navis)
Traffic rules don’t apply to him because like all Chinese drivers, he is the most important person in the world. Can’t you see his car?
Did you even watch the video? They didn’t have the walk light. Sucks to be them, but you’d think someone with a child would exercise more common sense.
Yes, if they exercised common sense, they wouldn’t let granpappy smoke with their baby, right?
If only there was a book for this… Amy Chua, get over here!
I can attest to the comment that the pedestrian is king. I was in China in the early 80s, when the country just started opening up. Was chauffered around in some official’s car (back then – the only people who have wheels are “Leaders”), and made the (what would appear obvious to Laowais – but ignorant to the Chinese) comment “why are pedestrians walking in the middle of intersections, and construction material piled right on portions of highways – next to houses being built ?”. The driver looked at me and said drily, “with all due respect, in China, the road belongs to the PEOPLE,”. implying what I observed to be par for course in the Peoples Republic. Fast forward 30 years later, car owners are the pigs in “the Animal Farm” novel, they are more equal than the peasants who have to walk. There, a perfectly logical explanation.
Until recently the rule was: Pedestrians are gods. In any accident the police would always rule in their favor.
I think it was 2008 or 09 that The China Daily started publishing stuff about pedestrians having to obey the traffic laws.
To be fair to the pedestrian it looks like they are crossing at a Zebra Crossing style section. I don’t think there are usually light signals. The rule is in the UK that a drive must give way and I expect it’s the same in China. Also I can imagine how the driver unless distracted could not have seen the pedestrians and stopped in time.
I’d say this was a case of bad driving rather than ‘Jaywalking’.
That should be…
‘Also I CAN’T imagine how the driver unless distracted could not have seen the pedestrians and stopped in time.’
Not ‘can’.
Ouch. And that stupid biatch was totally in the wrong. It’s progress in china to even get people to use crosswalks but there are also lights they need to pay attention to.
Seems like a rookie mistake (I know, she’s a local). In China, even if you have the light, you better look both ways about 18 times or you’re liable to get run over. I mean, extremely liable to get run over. Mostly because the drivers take ‘turn on a red light’ literally.