Videos

Female Bicylist Hit By Vehicle Run Over Repeatedly In Ningbo

by on Thursday, March 3, 2011 80 comments comments

The bicycle of a young woman who was hit by a speeding vehicle in Ningbo, China and then repeatedly run over by traffic.

Uploaded March 1st, the following video on popular Chinese video sharing website Tudou has been viewed over 750k times:

Transcription & translation of the above video:

In Ningbo of Zhejiang Province a woman was hit by a three wheeled vehicle, after which she was run over 4 times in succession by 4 different cars. All of the drivers drove away; failing to care whether she was alive or dead. The five drivers responsible have all been brought in.

The accident happened between 7:35 and 8 in the evening. This section of the road didn’t have any CCTV cameras in place, however, by chance a surveillance camera of a company nearby recorded the whole incident.

That night at around 7:35 as a person riding a bicycle was crossing the road from west to east a three wheeled motorbike drove at speed from the south heading north. The front left of the 3 wheeled motorbike hit the front wheel of the bicycle hurtling the cyclist across the ground. Afterwords the 3 wheeled motorbike continued to speed north; escaping from the scene.

Around a minute later a car coming from the fast lane also heading north clearly bounces up a bit as it drives over the victim’s body. Ultimately the car moved into the slow lane and stopped. A man and a woman got out of the car. At the same time a pick up truck came out of the company’s entrance, turned right and stopped in the non-vehicle lane. The man and the woman walked to the side of the pick-up, and after saying a few words with the driver took out a mobile. A short while later the pick-up left the scene with the man and woman also leaving immediately afterwards.

In the ten or so minutes after 3 vehicles drove over the victim’s body. The 3rd vehicle, a truck like vehicle really rolled the victim’s body even further away. The place the woman was first hit was just over 20 metres from the final spot.

From this part of the video we can still clearly see that from when the incident happened to when the traffic police arrived at the scene over 40 cars, motorbikes and electric bikes didn’t stop and call the police as they passed but chose to drive around the victim’s body.

According to an explanation from the civil police involved, the person on the bicycle was a woman almost 22-years-old called Han. After the accident, due to being run over many times, there was no way to save her and she was pronounced dead not long after entering hospital.

The civil police also learnt that the deceased has a 2-year-old child. After the accident, Fenghua traffic police quickly established a crime investigation unit and through careful investigation determined the vehicles involved and arrested all five drivers. After 9 days and 9 nights, this major traffic accident case was finally closed. Mr.Li the driver of the 3 wheeled motorbike who was the first to hit the victim and drive off after has already been taken into custody by the police. The other 4 drivers received administrative punishments.

A copy on YouTube:

Can’t see the above video?

Comments from Tudou:

qq17440493:

The judge should at least give a life sentence to the driver (personally I think they’re all getting off light)

valou:

Traffic accidents have become society’s the most frightening killer.

一LONG一:

Society hasn’t been humane for ages…so what are you waiting/hoping for again?

If you were the second person and you reported it…and “luckily” since there wasn’t a CCTV camera around, you would be charged and waiting to go to jail.
This isn’t about morality or immorality…this isn’t about being human or inhuman….
If you can’t even control your own life..stop JB [fucking] talking about the darkness of human nature! CAO!

Fallingstar*:

The victim died in hospital, after being hit by five cars she must have still been alive

一LONG一:

If the second driver called the police and since there wasn’t a CCTV camera…do you believe the police would track down the first driver?? Do you believe someone would defend and say it was unfair for the second driver??
The third, fourth and fifth drivers…no a single one of them can guarantee their innocence, so what qualifications to condemn them?
If you were the second driver… would you own up?? If you are brave enough to own up, then I take my hat off to you.

夜之魍魉:

These drivers are in the wrong, but everyone stop to think about why. Why? The Party now is just too terrible, having made the citizens of this country into cold-blooded animals. Why didn’t anyone stop and call the police? Some stopped, took a look, and then left. Because the are afraid. Afraid! Afraid of what? They are afraid that after they report it that they will be accused of being the person responsible for doing it. Everyone believes that [being involved in] one more matter is always worse than [being involved in] one less matter. This also shows that the efficiency of today’s police is “too high”, so everyone is afraid.

JEJE。:

People these days are so indifferent, but you also can’t blame them. If they went over to help and were accused of being the person who ran over the person, then they’d be in trouble.

超级观察者:

Nanjing judges say that whoever helps is whoever hit [the victim], so we prove that it wasn’t us who hit the victim by going around.

可爱小馋猫:

[This] makes people sad, the whole society is shocked…the government and state should do a better job educating the people, the people’s character needs to be improved, knowledge of the law needs to be universal……

quclk:

If nobody called the police then there would be an extra pile of minced meat the next day.

嫩寒微暖:

I once read a news story about an old guy that got ill and fell down in the street. He was dead for a good while and still nobody went to try and help him up or call an ambulance because they were all afraid of there being mistaken [as the person responsible]… [This is a] sickness, a sickness.

长弓无刃:

What kind of system we are under is what kind of response/reaction we will get.

乂小裤裤乂:

Their father isn’t Li Gang, of course they fled~!

口袋恋爱:

Drag that rubbish out and have them all shot…truly makes one angry…

btyu00:

But the most detestable are those in the second car, the three cars after might have been because it was dark and didn’t see, maybe thinking there was something wrong with the road. But the second driver even got out and took a look, knowing that they had hit someone they pretended it didn’t matter and drove off, curse their entire family to always be prostitutes and slaves throughout the generations!

What do you think?

  • http://www.facebook.com/kedafu Kedafu

    Song of the Article,

    Happy Bicycle
    by 泽野弘之

    its instrumental

  • 平凡人

    Society today, basically irresponsible and lack of moral values. No one stopped to help, even those who ran over her.

    • Tommy

      Isn’t it the law that the person who calls the ambulance has to pay for the hurt person’s medical bills?

      • Carl

        of course not, but in the end, a court as to determine who was responsible for reported accidents, medical, traffic or otherwise, end in a much flawed system in China, the person reporting sometimes ends up as a the ultimate victim.

        • Alex

          In China if you help, you are hold responsible for the whole thing. Because if it wasn’t your fault, why would you have stopped?

          • Tommy

            I’ll never forget the girl I saw dying in the street. She lay prostrate in the middle of the road, beside a mangled bike and in front of a car with a smashed windshield. There was no ambulance, no police, traffic just slowly edged around body as she lay with open eyes and blood pooling beneath her head.

            You could say that’s Chinese culture to only care about your own, but it isn’t the same in Hong Kong or Taiwan. So that tells me it isn’t Chinese culture to let someone die in the street, just the local laws shaping the society.

            I live in Liaoning province and I’ve been told by several people–both foreigners and Chinese–that if you call the ambulance, you will be held responsible for all medical bills if the injured person can’t pay. Why would you help anyone with rules like that? (Or maybe it isn’t true?)

            Especially when you consider hospitals will simply stop treating you for curable cancer if you run out of money to pay for treatment–which is how my friend’s Aunt died–why risk spending your money to save someone else’s life when it could cost your own?

          • anon

            Did you call the police when you saw that girl or did you heed the advice of your Chinese and foreign friends?

            Honestly, much of how we (and the Chinese) think of these instances is a case of misleading vividness. We hear a lot of stories about how the Good Samaritan was blamed and screwed over and the outrageousness of that sticks in our minds chilling our future proclivities to help and leading us to make some hasty generalizations about how likely such things occur. We don’t ever hear about or remember the stories of Good Samaritans who did a good deed and weren’t scammed or screwed over by the victim, or were even thanked graciously by the victim…because that’s what we expect and that doesn’t make for good news.

          • Tommy

            @Anon

            “Did you call the police when you saw that girl or did you heed the advice of your Chinese and foreign friends?”
            I was on a bus which was passing by her and couldn’t speak any Chinese. I also don’t know the local

            “Honestly, much of how we (and the Chinese) think of these instances is a case of misleading vividness. We hear a lot of stories.”
            Yeah I think that is the case. A few news stories and everyone is afraid of helping. I think I would help now that I know a little Chinese, but before I really didn’t know the ropes.

          • morrisshi

            Communist Mainland Chineses do not have heart to care about their own people, that’s not traditional chinese culture, it is communist culture.

  • Lin

    how sad and immoral those drivers.
    atleast they have caught some of the drivers, go cctv.

  • Snafu

    What’s with all this “second driver” or “third driver” BS? … how the heck are the drivers supposed to know what order they all ran over the body?

    To villify the 2nd driver over the others just shows how blindly, stupidly, and dangerously emotional some of those netizens are.

    • staylost

      They are saddened by the behavior of the 2nd driver (or 3rd, I can’t remember which one) actually got out of their car after accidentally running her over, looked at the victim, got back in their car, and drove away. For that matter, the slow truck merging from the driveway must have also seen the body and also drove on without doing anything. By the time the last drivers were jumping her body in their rides, she may have looked more like a dead dog or a bundle of clothing in their headlights, rather than the unimaginable, a person.

      Regardless, the remorseless behavior of the first driver is so much worse than the behavior of those who came after that it is really incomparable. In general I agree with you.

      What can instill in man’s heart values such that he becomes more than an animal?

      • anon

        I think we can assume the guy who first hit her knowingly did a hit and run to evade responsibility. Not uncommon.

        But I’m wondering whether the subsequent people might’ve thought they were the first to hit her/run over her too. I mean, they didn’t see the first guy, right? So could they have thought the blood was on their hands directly as opposed to merely just being afraid they’d be blamed for it as suggested in the comments?

        I’m willing to believe the later cars might’ve thought they just ran over roadkill, but I’m not so sure about the second driver who got out. I wonder if they concluded that they had ran over someone that someone else had first hit or if they were the first people to hit and run over her.

        The driver in the pickup probably has the least reason to fear. He never touched the body, and saw it in his headlights lying on the road right in front of him as he was pulling out. He could still have been afraid of being blamed for it and thus didn’t want to get involved, but unlike the others who ran over her body, at least he doesn’t have the uncertainty of wondering if he might’ve been the person who first ran over her and killed her.

        The “Their father isn’t Li Gang” comment was pure gold.

  • gump

    The second car should sentence for death penalty. Base on jurisdiction of hefty crime.

  • diverdude

    what is an “administrative punishment”?

    • cdn icehole

      “…a warning, a fine, or administrative detention of not more than fifteen days…”

      http://law.jrank.org/pages/643/Comparative-Criminal-Law-Enforcement-China-Concept-crime.html

      I’m going to guess a fine for the 2nd and subsequent drivers. The first one will get his ass handed back to him.

      • Pvt. Joker

        That is fucking light considering they ran over her after she was left for dead by the first driver. Nothing more that a slap on the wrist for such callous behavior, so wrong.

        • Shing Chuang

          No, it is heavy considering that the people being fined were probably not the same people who ran over her and left her for dead. Do you really think the police found the actual hit and runners?

  • cdn icehole

    Majority of this kind of problem can easily be solved by having and enforcing some kind of “Good Samaritan” law.

    • staylost

      Wow. That would be such a catch 22 in China. If you report it, you are accused of doing it. If you avoid it, you are legally culpable.

      Ouch.

  • vince

    I feel depressed while reading this article, society is becoming more amoral and apathetic towards the human condition. In a way I can understand why the subsequent drivers fled as they feared blame would be placed squarely upon their heads.
    I have read other articles that seem to show a common factor i.e. the reluctance of bystanders to help, I am curious to know is it due to a fear of being dragged to court by those they have helped?

    • Suicidal tendency

      It’s exactly that!
      I’m repeatedly told never help people you don’t know whatever the trouble they’re in, they will take advantage of the situation and pretend you’re the problem.
      Policemen, most of time, won’t go further than the “easy case to solve”: agreeing to charge the Samaritan.

      If you’re a foreigner, that’s even worse, because you’re expected to have a lot of money, and less capability to defend yourself if people start shouting around…

    • Sunshine

      In China, there were several cases where those who were helping were accused of being the ones responsible for placing those they helped in a situation where they needed help. Shit hits the fan and was bagged and brought to court. A few of these incidents occur and now everybody keeps a 3 meter distance from people in dire situations.
      When I went back last summer I was particularly disgusted by the indifference people showed when a handicapped man (no leg) carrying an infant on his back trudged onto the subway to find all the seats taken by youngsters or otherwise middle age, but perfectly healthy people. I politely asked a few to offer their seats to the obviously struggling man but was received with eye whites and pursed mouths. I got pissed and was not afraid to express my disappointment in people and their lack of sympathy. Needless to say when my cousin (who was with me at the time, being terrified of the outspoken creature I had become) relaid the story to my parents, I was met with a shower of phrases like “Too blunt! No head! What if you got beat up! Don’t be too outspoken!”. Apparently, being a good Samaritan, or maybe in my case being a good Samaritan who encourages others to be good Samartians is generally frowned upon in China.

      • anon

        That definitely happens. As one of the commenters wrote above, there’s a pervasive “common wisdom” in China that its better to just mind your own business. Certainly places are better than others (for example, I often see people give up their seats for the elderly and pregnant) but China is a big country and a lot of places are still really “tough” places to live in where people tend to be poorly educated and insular.

        • Tommy

          Every week I see some young person sitting in the “kind heart seats” on the bus as old, frail women and men try not to fall over standing.

          Is this because of the cultural revolution? The pervasive attitude that the best thing to do is “not care about others”?

          • anon

            I vaguely remember that chinaSMACK ran a story about Chinese netizens criticizing young people for not giving up their seats to the elderly (the young people arguing that they work all day and deserve the rest). I’m hesitant to link this to the Cultural Revolution since the young people didn’t really experience it and the social norm of respecting your elders clearly survived it.

            I don’t think whether a person gives up their seat to an elderly person is the same kind of “caring or not caring about others” that is relevant to this post. I suspect that plenty of people give up their seats for the elderly but you don’t notice them because you expect that to happen whereas the opposite, people refusing to do so, sticks out in your memory. It’s also possible that where you live is populated by a bunch of people who don’t, but I can safely say that I’ve seen plenty of both in my experiences in and throughout China.

          • Teacher in China

            I’m a bit of a people watcher, even in my own country. So when I’m on public transportation, I like to plug in the music and just watch what’s going on. I have seen tons of people giving up seats for older or crippled people. Tons. Actually, funnily enough, sometimes the older person will refuse and people literally have to push him/her down into the seat, at which time he/she will smile grandly and thank the person who gave it up. I’d say it’s no different than other places I’ve visited: sometimes people are douchebags and don’t want to give it up, or they are just in their own little world and don’t notice, but most of the time someone will do it.

        • Sunshine

          What pissed me off even more was that this happened in Shanghai.
          It is not always the case where uneducated=no morals.

      • vince

        This is true, i have seen it happen quite a few times where the youngsters fail to offer seats to the elderly as well as those with young children or babies it would seem that the youngsters these days have no morals or ethics and have become completely apathetic.
        I never fail to offer a seat to those who need it, when my wife was pregnant and we traveled on the buses she was never once denied the chance to get a seat so all hope is not lost, i just hope the younger generation gets it into their heads that even though it is a dog eat dog world out there, you cant lose your morals and humanity.
        I’m glad u expressed your dissatisfaction Sunshine, people need to feel bad about not offering that seat to the handicapped man, you may be just one man but u can make a difference, bravo!
        P.S. I wont be giving up my sofa though, if i ever get it! ^^

  • McCurry

    The worst part is, if it wasn’t for the company’s camera, all these fuckers would had gotten away with it, along with probably with hundreds of other cases like this.

    What does the husand and 2 year old get in return? Probably some money that aren’t even enough to put the kid through university

  • diverdude

    As everyone knows who has spent any real time in the harmonious PRC, Chinese drivers drive like mad-men. So at odds with the idea of them being a ‘caring’ society that they have somehow managed to spread. I’ve been around the world and lived in East Asia about 10 years, and I constantly witness acts of simple indifference up to outright hostility/violence shared between our Han brothers. Believe me, these big trucks will mow down anyone and everyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. No matter if it is the supposedly valued Han Chinese women, children, or families and the behavior of these homicidal maniacs will not change one iota.
    It seems to be a sort of road-rage. Such a physically exhausting, boring, unappreciated, low-paid job as bus driving is, so that seems to make the bus driver become very aggressive in his operation of the vehicle. I am guessing it is the same with all these drivers.

    As Axl said ‘Welcome to the Jungle !’

    • Irvin

      They were taught that “smaller matter should give way to greater matters” by Confucius. However they weren’t taught that human lives are greater than a car.

      Most chinese are superficial and can only think in terms of the physical side of things, not the moral side. So most philosophical teachings get misinterpreted sometimes.

  • guobao2

    Stupid comments from the netizens as usual. Simple fucking fact of the road: Never drive faster than you have time to stop if something happens. It applies to the national sport of tailgating as well as seeing someone lying on the road in front of your car. You are NOT innocent just because you weren’t the guy who originally hit her. If your car kills her while she is lying there you have culpa as well.

  • http://like.fm/chris Chris

    How the hell did they catch the drivers from that blurry video? Is it possible the gov’t made that part up to make itself look good?

    • deputamadre

      Chinese police have highly advanced technology which allowed them to catch all of the suspects within one hour. Nothing to see here.

      • Alikese

        They went down to the lab and the detective stood over the shoulder of the lab tech sitting at a computer saying “enhance… enhance…” by the end it was all crystal clear.

        • mechanized

          HAHA that’s exactly what i was envisioning!

    • 3B-real

      That’s exactly my thoughts. They didn’t even catch the 3 wheeler but the car drivers. But they could have gotten lucky with the 2nd driver because she probably had paint smear off onto the victim. I just don’t china has this type of investigation skills. Especially in smaller populated areas.

      • cdn icehole

        According to the article: “Mr.Li the driver of the 3 wheeled motorbike who was the first to hit the victim and drive off after has already been taken into custody by the police. The other 4 drivers received administrative punishments.”

        I’m going to assume that since stubear did not post any photos of the drivers, the police likely have made up the story to appease the public. There’s a small chance that there were footage from other cameras which the police didn’t want to release.

    • Chris

      Must be one of those programs that can clear up pixels.

      • paxman

        Hey America has this technology too. Haven’t any of you guys seen CIS? ptff…

  • http://www.matthewsawtell.com Matthew A. Sawtell

    Disappointing, but not surprising… I am surprised that three wheelers and bicycles are still allowed on streets with car/truck traffic.

    • cdn icehole

      Motorists generally don’t like sharing the road with bicyclists so drivers usually tell the bicyclists to use the sidewalk. Unfortunately, there’s a by-law where I live preventing adult bicyclists from using the sidewalk due to fatal collisions with pedestrians. Bicycle paths would not have prevented the death due to the extreme number of people in cities. Rural areas simply don’t have the funding to build them.

      I still think some kind of “Good Samaritan” law followed by a change in public attitudes (i.e. victim mentality and caring about their jobs).

      • http://www.matthewsawtell.com Matthew A. Sawtell

        Given the cultural issues – and twits that have gotten too much press for trying to fleece people with ‘whiplash’ cases – have a bad feeling this issue is not going to go away until all pedal vehicles and motor vehicles under 150cc’s are banned from all public roads.

  • Frank

    I think that the people who didn’t help the woman should have to go to prison for a very long time. What if they were the victim instead, how would they feel if nobody helped them!!! It’s totally egoistic and very cruel.
    When people are aware of the fact that if they don’t help somebody, they will go to prison, maybe they will start helping other people!!!!!!

  • Kning

    Three hurrays for Confucius!

    The man who made it all possible! The first to teach the Chinese people that there is no real reason to care about anyone that is not your best friend or family.

    This isn’t about fear of rules and responsibility at all. It’s about having a fucking heart. If you drive over someone, and you do not stop and take care of the victim, you do not have a heart. Doesn’t matter if you were the first to hit them or not. There is no rule or repercussion in the world that could stop me from stopping, in such a situation.

    • Irvin

      You’ll probably be in jail or bankrupt from paying fines if you’re in china. But I admire your integrity and strong sense of justice.

      I however am merely a small fish in a big pond, 我。。。。。我要活下去， 也为你活下去。

    • anon

      I’m pretty sure Confucius did NOT promote that there is no real reason to care about strangers. To promote doing one thing does not promote NOT doing another.

    • Sunshine

      I’m curious, which phrase is that in 论语 where he projects that idea?

  • Jay K.

    Catch slogan for Las Vegas is “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”

    China’s should be “Carefree can be yours”

  • Irvin

    This is not the first time these kind of shit happened. The truth is: chinese traffic laws need to be revised.

    Right now whoever help will get prosecuted, the judges are just lazy and wants to close cases fast instead of pursuing justice and the truth.

    Due to the current state of the chinese law, I would’ve done the same. If I saw someone in need of medical attention on the street I probably would just ignore them and walk.

    I must confess, one have to be very morally flexible and have a hard heart to survive here.

    I’m Irvin and this is china.

    • 吴兰

      The traffic laws are one thing – it’s their application that has a looong way to go in China. China is the country of the dead laws. I have spent 4 years in China. Not once did I hear of anyone being stopped by traffic police for routine control. Not once did the presence of the traffic police made itself clearly visible to me while on my bike/ebike/in a friend’s car. However, the few times I did see them guard the big crossroads, I also saw hundreds of Chinese people jaywalk and cross the street with the red light in front of their very eyes.

      • PeterScriabin

        In the city where I live, the police also seem utterly indifferent to “minor traffic violations” that occur right in front of them. The traffic situation is so completely Hobbesian that I imagine they have nowhere to begin in applying the “law”. There is simply not even the beginnings of a culture of obeying traffic laws, or even sensible practices.

        However, lately the police have implemented major campaigns to stop san luan che (three-wheel taxis) and investigate licenses and IDs. San luan che drivers invariably collect fares upfront, presumably because they fear not making it to the destination.

        Can’t help wondering if this might have contributed to the original driver in the present story not stopping? Of course, it doesn’t help either, that many drivers have no 3rd-part insurance. If there were no compulsory 3rd-part insurance laws in western countries, I fancy there’d be a lot more hit-run incidents there too.

        • PeterScriabin

          Apologies, I meant lún​ not luan, and 3rd party. On thinking about this whole incident (see comment by 一LONG一), in the Chinese context, it’s not so easy to judge the individual drivers, except the first one.

          Given that western roads are well-lit, most everyone has 3rd-party insurance, and police are disposed to look at actual evidence, it’s so much easier to behave well in that environment.

          • Irvin

            Joker from batman begins was right, we are only as civilize as the world allowed us to be.

    • donscarletti

      I don’t see why everyone generalizes this into a whole country. I have not seen a single car crash outside of Ningbo, I have spent maybe two weeks here in total and have seen three, one of them ripped a car in two, but the others were just small dings.

      Maybe the subway construction is messing up the traffic flow, maybe they are using it as an excuse to play up, but there is something specific about the people of Ningbo that makes them born to crash cars.

  • Cyrus Howell

    They way Chinese people treat each other is still very sad.
    Is this 2011 or is it 1811?

    • Sunshine

      Actually, 1811 would be a MUCH MUCH better year to live in, in China, in terms of manners and whatnot. People still had ideas of 儒教 embedded in their everyday practices.
      After the culture revolution, everything has gone to the wolves.

      • anon

        I’m not sure I’d go that far. 1811 China may not have gone through the widespread purging and denunciation of certain traditional morals and norms of the Cultural Revolution but it was still a pretty brutish place for the vast majority of people. The issue really isn’t time but about the wealth of a society (both total and in distribution). When people have less worries for their basic survival, they have the time and energy to give a shit about others. This has been fundamentally true for every society at every point in time throughout history.

  • 吴兰

    No civil society means there are no rules to this game. There is only the Confucian tribal thinking: as long as it’s not me and my family, the rest can go to hell. And this poor woman did. Sad place China. It’d write here that the Chinese should consider introducing the Samaritan law: not helping means you’re responsible for the damage caused by your neglect but having lived here for 4 years, I know it would stand no chance of being applied anyways.

  • john digmeme

    It’s also like this in the northeast of the USA, especially in the Philadelphia area. People get hit, no one stops. Here, it is inexcusable. There, you can blame the lack of due process and justice for scaring people away from doing the right thing. Nevertheless, this is a tragic story.

    • Tommy

      As someone from North Eastern USA, and someone who now lives in China, I can tell you it’s not the same at all. People lay in public dying here… that would never happen in the USA, someone would always call 911.

      • anon

        Not the exact same incident but similar to a lot of incidents posted elsewhere on this website:

        http://www.aolnews.com/2010/04/26/kitty-genovese-2010-people-walk-by-dying-man/

        Was in the northeast US, and the article references other similar incidents.

        A lot of commenters here don’t sufficiently appreciate just how liable people are to inaction, and how similar the reasons given for inaction are in these cases.

        In this case, we can say the first guy did a hit and run. The couple that stopped second, as well as the pickup that saw the body on the road but wasn’t one of the motorists that ran her over, may have ultimately left fearing they’d be held liable. We know the couple made a call but to who we don’t know (maybe the police?). The later drivers we could argue simply didn’t know they had ran over a human and just drove on thinking it was roadkill or a some other rubbish on the road. There are always reasons and they’re really not that difficult to comprehend.

        What is the same in these cases are that its often the majority that doesn’t actually do anything despite witnessing something. It should be noted that someone did ultimately report to the police that there was a body on the ground in this story, just as is the case in other similar stories.

      • guizi

        I vaguely remember seeing a video of a dying man left uncared on the road, some passersby even took a photo of him. So I googld, and found this,
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-20dURI9qA&feature=fvwrel

        I think I saw different videos too, but had no luck to find.

        It seems this is called a bystander effect. This video is very shocking, you should watch.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsPfbup0ac&feature=related

        After reading comments by Chinese people, It seems no one believes the police. I think the first hit and the second hit make different clash marks, and the second driver will not be wrongly accused as the first driver by this. But, perhaps Chinese police do not do their jobs correctly, and so everyone is afraid of being wrongly accused.

  • Jess

    It is very dark, maybe the other drivers did not see her on the ground?

    • staylost

      …and the excuse for not helping after they ran over her?

      • anon

        Well, if they didn’t see her on the ground, how could they know they ran a “her” over? Maybe they thought they ran over some roadkill or even just a bag of junk on the ground.

        • staylost

          So the real fault here is unsafe driving, or lack of lighting provided by the government? (obviously not referencing the first two cars)

          • anon

            I think the fault here, if there is one, is making hasty generalizations. I posted two news articles to similar things happening elsewhere, one in the US, and one just two days ago in Australia.

            If you want to blame unsafe driving, you can, but you’d be indicting everyone who has ever ran over anything. Lack of lighting is just being unreasonable. Jess’s point, which I find plausible, is that the who subsequently ran her over may not have known what they ran over and didn’t automatically assume it was a human.

            If we knew for certain that they knew they ran over a body and didn’t help, we’d have more cause to condemn them with.

  • John Wayne

    I am so saddened by this. Why can’t people stop to help and render care to other humans when they are dying in the road?

    • pervertt

      I think the overwhelming response has been one of disgust, even despair, at the social values that have been bred into modern urban China. Has it always been like this? I don’t think so. I think all humans, as social animals, would innately be inlined assist another of their kind who is in trouble. Why then would it take 4 or 5 vehicles to run over this poor woman before someone stops to render assistance?

      I don’t think people should blame Confucius. There are other Asian societies where Confucian values have taken root and I can’t see this sort of thing happening in those places. In any civil society, the rights of the individual are protected, but the individual also has obligations to others in society. There are laws to enforce these obligations, and often these laws are backed by social mores that frown on selfish or anti-social behaviour.

      I would not blame the government if this accident happened in a society where there is rule of law and individuals should take responsibility for their own actions. But in a place where a single party has monopolised power, made laws and shaped social values for the past 60 years, I think the government has a case to answer. Modern urban China is a place where most people look only after themselves, and where altruistic behaviour is seen as aberrant. It does not bode well for a country where the gulf between rich and poor is rapidly widening, and where a rapidly ageing population must increasingly rely on fewer young people for support. A dose of Confucian values would come in handy. Very handy in fact.

  • Joe

    Okay. The money grabbing thing, that could’ve happened overseas. But getting hit by five (?!?!) cars sequentially and not a single one stopping? Only China could pull that one off.

  • Irvin

    Google the documentary “Human Zoo”, you’ll see it’s not just china that these shit happens.

    More over, in the studies of the documentary the people there have no reason not to help while in china we actually does have a reason because of the dicey laws.

  • GodsHammer

    Of course they caught the people involved. If they can tell the brand, model or even color then they can cross reference it with the time at the real police cameras at the next intersection. Pretty simple to narrow it down I think.
    I hope the people that didn’t stop get jail time for that.

  • liu xue sheng

    Christ. And western countries think they have problems.

    I was in a restaurant the other day in Kunming. A man by the toilets had a woman held against the wall, seemingly poking her eyes out. Eventually he threw her on the ground and started hitting her. Waitresses, customers, no-one did a thing. Me and a western mate went over and stared at the man until he stopped, but even we were not sure whether we should get involved – indifference is contagious, and we are both foreigners.

    After, my Chinese friends all said you should do nothing in these situations to avoid trouble. This is a sorry state of affairs, a basic lack of civil society.

  • gabriel

    seriously chinese nationals have such bad driving in that they don’t give way. in australia they always seem to turn out infront of me when it is my right of way, causing me to brake hard in order to avoid them. they don’t seem to care or know that they have broken the road rules either?

  • Koreansentry

    This sort of accident is common in poor and undeveloped countries where rich people have license to kill poor people. China is still poor & backward. I’m pretty sure this is just tip of the ice berg.

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