This is the music they play in movies when a hero is about to die. It's dramatic, it builds upon its own tension, it tells a story of sorrow, sacrifice, and honor, or fulfillment, or redemption. (In fact, I'm pretty sure it comes from a movie, but I couldn't tell you which one.) And it's incredibly overwrought, never quite right for our world but fine for an alternate reality made in a studio.
A passenger coach erupted into flames earlier today on an expressway between Tianjin and Beijing, possibly the same stretch of road in which we saw a 31-vehicle pileup just a few days ago. Reports are that 5 German passengers and 1 Chinese have died, and another 14 were injured. Nothing else is known at this time.
Let it be known: fog is dangerous. Yesterday morning, due to "low visibility" on the Tianjin-Beijing Highway, 31 vehicles collided one after another. Three died and many more were injured.
The traffic cop in the linked video warns drivers that 150 meters should be maintained between your car and the one ahead of you. How he kept a straight face, we have no idea. Traffic laws are expected to be obeyed in this country? Huh.
Were you on the road yesterday? Around rush hour, perhaps? If so, we offer our sincerest condolences. Also: HA HA! SUCKER! YOU WERE ON THE ROAD! According to the newscast above, it took nearly two hours to drive the 2.5 kilometers from Liangmaqiao to Dongzhimen starting at 5:30 pm. I’ve done the math for you:... Read more »
Recently in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, a traffic accident has led some people to praise two men for being Good Samaritans, but... pardon me for not completely seeing it. In the video, it looks like the female scooterist knocks herself out when she rams her head into the side of an encroaching vehicle. The man next to her then scoops her off the ground (what happened to stabilizing the neck?), and we're told that he -- along with someone else who stops to help -- hails a taxi to send her to the hospital. Whatever happened to ambulances? Oh well. Thought that counts!
Another day, another lesson for the road. When you're in a parked car, please turn your head to look behind you before opening your door.
On many occasions have I envisioned myself flipping over the handlebar because I suspect the passenger of the parked car I'm about to pass will step out at just the wrong second. Thankfully I've yet to take a tumble, but last week in Wuhan, a family of three on a scooter weren't so lucky.
It's most definitely not the type of flying you want to do. Watch as a woman crossing the road stops in the middle -- maybe because she received a text or call, says the interviewed police officer -- and winds up going head over heels when a sedan plows right through her. (The sound effects are the newscast's.)
A show on CCTV-13 recently aired a segment from the Zhejiang Traffic Bureau that was essentially a morbid seat belt PSA. We've seen these type of public service announcements before -- there was this GIF from the Shanghai Highway Patrol in July warning people to take care of their tires -- and like always, questions of their efficacy take a backseat to the shocking footage itself.
Don’t do this. A few days ago on the Zhejiang-Shenhai Highway, a driver — making a run for the title of worst in the world — inexplicably braked on the highway after missing an exit, nearly causing a serious wreck. A freight truck lost control while trying to avoid a collision, screeching to a halt next... Read more »
There really isn't any info about this video except the timestamp in the dashboard cam (September 1, around noon), and the car that flips over appears to be a Honda. The 56.com video (embedded after the jump, and in higher quality than the YouTube embed) delights in that fact. "Tailgating Japanese car causes rollover accident," reads the title. If that was a Chinese-manufactured car, say a BYD, it totally wouldn't have flipped, or exploded.
