Videos

Traffic Accidents Caught On Shandong Surveillance Cameras

by on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 135 comments comments

A collection of traffic accidents caught on surveillance cameras at intersections in Heze city, Shandong province, China.

The following 12-minute video is a compilation of traffic accidents caught on surveillance cameras installed throughout the city of Heze in Shandong province of China. It was originally released by traffic authorities to help educate the public on traffic safety awareness and has since become the latest viral video to spread throughout China’s internet where it has been viewed millions of times by Chinese netizens. Warning: Video may be graphic.

On Youku:

Tragic! 108 surveillance cameras capture the moment of death in Heze traffic accidents!

Installing surveillance cameras is just one method, but improving motorists and the people’s traffic safety knowledge is the key. We cannot stop traffic accidents from happening, but we will do our best to prevent and reduce the occurrence of accidents. Rise up together all people and all police, and work towards building a safe and peaceful Heze, work towards being able to go home to eat with our loved ones…

The above high definition copy comes from popular Chinese video sharing website Youku, where it has accumulated over ~2 million views, over 8300 comments spanning over 279 pages, and over 23k upvotes within 22 hours of being uploaded. These numbers are still rapidly rising as of this time. Just over the past hour, this video added an additional 200k views and 4k upvotes.

In comparison, the most popular copy on Tudou has 190k views, over 600 comments, over 1200 upvotes, and is titled “Shandong Heze police released traffic accident footage, over 10 million views“.

A copy on YouTube:

Can’t see the above video?

[UPDATE: Sorry, our copy on YouTube was "flagged as inappropriate" and is no longer available.]

Comments from Youku:

ssdsdsdsdd:

Those people are so unobservant of traffic rules. Intensely demand that China’s traffic department modify the laws so that those who don’t obey the rules like running red light and therefore cause accidents resulting in injuries and deaths should not only die but also pay fines and losses.

@dkcr:

A lot of them are electric scooters and motorcycles breaking the law… so sad… In some of the clips, the car was already driving very slowly…

Nicolas遥:

After watching these, it seems it is always the ones who got hit who simply have no notion of traffic regulations. Can you please just wait those few dozen seconds? Are those few seconds going to result in you making 1 million less or whatever?
We can see in conclusion: No matter what “metal covering flesh” > “flesh covering metal”

@鄙视CPC:

Again a problem with the character of our country’s people, insisting on crossing even when they know there are cars coming and going. And the drivers too. In Germany, even if it is a green light but there are pedestrians on the crosswalk, the drivers will not move forward, they won’t even honk.

幽灵尤里:

Yes, they [in Germany] won’t move forward… but in China if you don’t try moving forward or honking, just when will you be able to go??? If you give way to them, they will cross the road slowly, one after another, not letting you go… frustrating you to death. [But] if you don’t give way to them, you’ll feel bad in your heart too…

超人。。:

For a lot of them, they deserved to die, they were asking for it. Who can you blame?

@小不点…狼:

搞笑搞笑搞笑 If you don’t abide by traffic rules and you get hit and die, you deserved it. It isn’t that I am ruthless, but those riding non-motorized vehicles treat us motorists like ATMs. They obviously know it is a red light yet they still run it right in front of you.

可恶的吼吼:

Only this kind of video can truly have any educational and cautionary value. Everyone on the road, you must be careful.

xu452729343:

This background music makes my blood boil! 难过

血雨冰刀007:

Some bastards simply deserve to die, [and they] even get motorists/drivers in trouble. To run a red light is to run past Death’s door. Best if they died.

@一砖不行就两砖:

First, it is still a problem of character! More and more people are buying cars! But accidents keep happening! Hope everyone can pay more attention when driving! Finally, it is still better to not buy cars! There will be less accidents and less pollution of the environment! Buying a car doesn’t show that you have money but rather makes you pay even more money! With gas prices that high, everyone in the future ride horses! 难过

xieqiang9595:

Heze people are in such a hurry?

X苏打水:

A lot of the situations was because these people believe the road belong to them.

sickdoll:

Those who violate traffic rules… should rightfully be hit and killed… even sympathy compensation shouldn’t be paid. Now anytime someone is hit, it is the person who hit the other who is held responsible. This is too unfair. Nowadays, those riding electric scooters will turn without even looking. You tell me what can be done when this happens? Sometimes I really want to ask them who would be responsible if a crash happened. NNd.

shell3956574:

汗汗 To say something heartless, those who were hit and killed truly deserved it!!! Truly!!! Life is getting faster and faster, there are more and more cars… Does not obeying the traffic signals mean you’re a man? Even if you get some compensation money (no matter who is wrong, the traffic police always rules compensation for the weaker party, which is the party on the non-motorized vehicle), you won’t be able to spend it when you’re dead. And after you’re gone, someone else will come sleep with your wife, hit your child, sit on your sofa, and live in your house!!! Cherish your life…it’s better to wait a minute than to steal a second!
In these clips, it is basically always caused by the non-motorized vehicle party running the traffic signal [red light], etc… causing disaster for both parties/sides!!!!! 汗

Newer Comments →
  • Dixie Normous

    i got sofa yea yea yea

    • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

      I think it’s time to include the word “sofa” into anti-spam list :-)

      • http://encyclopediadramatica.com/China Elijah

        +1 to Crystal

        Sofa = FIRST!!!!1111!!!1!!!!One!!

        Fauna, time to think about getting the old ban-hammer out for sofa-ers

        • Supreme_Leader

          I agree – also – this video is just evidence of the necessity for the Darwin Awards. Morons!

      • Alikese

        Strongly ding Crystal.

        Everyone can see that you’re the first post. If you can’t think of something even mildly interesting to write in the first post maybe you shouldn’t be commenting at all…

      • Bo Wang

        I can still claim sofa using synonyms in English and other languages! HA!

      • http://www.ethansenglishcafe.com Ethan

        I always liked Fark.com’s sollution, anyone who did it had their post moved to the bottom of the list, they would just post date their message by a month or two so it stayed at the bottom and got no notice.

  • Jones

    They should have dubbed over this with Yakkity Sax.

  • gabriel

    any room for me?

    • Devin

      As you wish, since Sofa,campstool,futon,closestool has been taken up,just grave left, you want it?

  • Chris

    My home province too! I was once hit by a taxi riding my bike home once. Totally my fault too.

    Way too much preventable suffering, all for the sake of what, shaving 15 sec of commuting time?

    • Ryo

      I don’t think some of these people can comprehend the seriousness of a hitting a car. You can clearly see a lot of them are carrying a child, and yet, they are not even being a bit careful. These people truly deserve every bit of suffering / or death that they get.

      • Jay

        I lived in Tianjin for 10 years – I saw a lot of traffic problems.
        1 – People don’t know the rules of the road. Or they know and just don’t care.
        2 – very few drivers use turn signals, and I never saw any cyclists signal anything but rude gestures.
        3 – red is a suggestion that maybe you should be a little more careful – but you don’t have to stop, if you really don’t want to.
        4 – Texting while cycling is OK! You don’t have to keep your eyes on the road, that’s for newbies.

        • Nathan

          Totally agree, I would also add:

          5 – police deem it more suitable to remind people to follow traffic rules rather than enforce them (this article’s video included)

          • Li RuiKe

            In China, the traffic police are useless. Where I live, cops hang out in gangs, like uniformed thugs, making sure that no vendors gather to sell necklaces at intersections that are just as crazy as in the video. Drivers, cyclists, 3-wheeled cabs and pedestrians are all willy-nilly crossing the streets as fast as they can, but the useless cops are standing around with their thumbs up their butts. I’d like to suggest that they start ticketing and collecting fines from every single lawbreaker, including their superiors and the BMW and Audi drivers, instead of making all their pocket money pimping at the local massage parlors, spas, KTVs and beauty salons. A good system of points that impact insurance rates would also be good. And why not confiscate unregistered vehicles, while they’re at it. Why can’t they ever be useful?

          • Chen

            I agree here too. I was in china and the first day I was there, I was almost killed. The pedestrian traffic light gave a green light and I just walk without ever thinking that there would be a cab would beat the red light. My friend managed to pull me back. I was almost hit by that cab. I notice alot of these chinese knew that red = walk and green = don;t cross.

            Damn, I was almost kill twice in china because of traffic

        • Teacher in China

          I’d add this
          6 – It’s everyone else’s responsibility to ensure that your dumbass driving skills don’t get anyone killed. Therefore, pulling in front of buses when waiting 3 second for it to pass would have sufficed is ok, since the it’s the bus driver’s responsibility to know that your dumb ass is going to pull out in front of him at the last second.

          I’ve seen equivalent lack of skills in Napoli, Italy, and heard that things are way worse in parts of Africa, but man the driving skills here drive me nuts. Totally ignorant and careless. Maybe it would get better if they actually had real driving tests that you actually needed to pass with skills instead of money.

        • kilroy238

          LOL

          I’m still in Tianjin it hasn’t changed. I ride an illegal bike but I ride it with respect to traffic laws. All I can do is shake my head and think 250 whenever another idiot rides blindly out into an intersection.

          I swear people are just so self absorbed you’d think they believed themselves alone instead of in a city of 10 million.

  • A Western Driver

    Chinese roads scare the crap out of me. No-one wears seatbelts, red lights aren’t respected. It seems everyone does just what the hell they want.

    Honking horns to say go and stop is just confusing. Never drive in China…

    • http://mysticalmagicpages.blogspot.com/ Tommy

      *Mainland China

    • Airy

      maybe democrazy will fix this.

      • Matt smith

        Wow, where did that come from? Maybe actually ENFORCING the laws might be a good idea. Did you see the part where the police officer kept driving after the biker got hit? Yeah, THAT’S what needs to change. So just simmer down now.

        • Just John

          lol, Nice way to put it.

          Did you see the one where the car hit the police officer, and the people got out and ran away?

          Seems even the enforcers cannot enforce because they hit and run.

          • guobao2

            I think that was a taxi, not a cruiser.

        • http://mysticalmagicpages.blogspot.com/ Tommy

          Democracy would force them to ENFORCE the laws. The mayor of a city with really bad police wouldn’t be around for long.

          • Bob

            Unless he is the best candidate with enough financial backing to run.

          • Bob

            India, for example, is the largest democracy in the world. I would much rather drive in China.

          • http://mysticalmagicpages.blogspot.com/ Tommy

            OK Bob. A democracy where corruption isn’t rampant, and votes aren’t rigged.

          • http://thecapitalinthenorth.blogspot.com jixiang

            it’s amazing how some Westerners are so obsessed with democracy and think it can solve everything. There are masses of democracies in the world where people don’t respect the traffic rules at all. And by the way, elections are not rigged in India. It’s just that if there isn’t a mentality of following the rules, democracy doesn’t change that. You confuse Western culture with democracy.

  • http://encyclopediadramatica.com/China Elijah

    Seems to me that the vast majority of these accidents could have been avoided by adding a few traffic lights and overhead lights to each intersection as well as a general knowledge of road safety and who has the right of way.

    Coming from Canada, I’ll tell you, it took me well over a year to stop clenching up tighter than a snare drum every stinking time I got in a car in china. It was terrifying to me to see such horrendous driving. The only other time I’ve ever seen such a low quality of driving standards was in Pakistan.

    Quick story, back when I was living in Xiamen, I had myself a motorbike (real one, not one of those pussy scooters or electric bikes). Nice one too, second-hand police bike, 175cc. Used it everyday to go to work or take my Angel for a ride somewhere. The only 3 times I ever got into an accident while driving I was alone and it was because the car that hit wasn’t following the road rules.

    Ex: Taxi tried to spee through a left-hand turn at an intersection a few seconds after the light turned red for him, I skidded into his rear door, no injuries or damage.

    Another time I was on the far right hand side of the road driving past a fancy restaurant (on the right) when this guy speeds up on my left and cuts across my lane to go to the restaurant. I tried to speed up and get by him because there wasn’t enough time to stop and he clipped my rear wheel sending me face-first into a bos-stop advertisement. A few stitches, couple of big scratches and the bike is totalled like a pretzel.

    I honestly don’t understand the mass stupidity of the general driving public in china. Do they not understand? Do they not care?

    Only one solution for bad drivers and it’s Final….. (I’m going to Hell, I know…)

    • Handburlgar

      I love hearing Chinese (or people who live in China) speak of “only” getting into 3 accidents. Where I live, that is considered way too many. I remember on Reddit a Chinese guy saying “I’ve only gotten in 6 accidents and only 3 were my fault!”. He was referring to how good of a driver he was, and got offended when we told him he sucked lol.

      • http://encyclopediadramatica.com/China Elijah

        Not chinese sorry, Canadian and so white that I can blend in with the snow (useful evolutionary defense camouflage eh?).

        Actually, I wasn’t trying to point out how skillful I am at driving (no need to state the obvious), but rather to point out how lucky I was considering the insane numbers of accidents that occur in china (even in the so-called more civilized urban areas). It has to do with population numbers (like everything else in china) and the abysmal level of driver standards.

        Going out on a branch here, I’m going to assume you’ve never fully experienced living in china aside from living it vicariously through others or visiting for less than a month during a trip.

        Then again I could be wrong, could be that you prefer swing through the streets on a web-line to avoid the traffic and have therefore never had a problem with it.

        • mistyken

          wow u were lucky to survive those since those bike accidents can turn deadly pretty easily. imo, riding a motorcycle in china is kind of like a death wish. with the crazy high accident rate and the total disregard of human life, it’s just unwise to travel on something with minimum protection.

        • Handburlgar

          I don’t need to live in China to know that the Chinese in mainland China have a shitty traffic system and even shittier drivers. I’m pretty confident that both of those are true.

          • kilroy238

            If you think about it those Chinese are probably better drivers than Americans. We are so used to everyone obeying the rules we’re spoiled ;) but over here in China if you’re one of the folks who DOESN’T want to kill someone or in my case on my 125cc bike get killed you have to be hyper vigilant with good reflexes ;)

  • Ryo

    It’s funny. A lot of these are people on damn bikes running traffic lights. They all think they have the right of way. It’s retarded. The law here is that even if they JUMP in front of your car, the car is always at fault. In order for China to advance, this has to change. If no money will be paid for pedestrians and people on bikes, especially the illegal ones that carry people for money, they would not dare to run red lights.

    Look at the crash at 3:30 (youtube), the bike is going FASTER then the car! He just ran right in front thinking the car WILL stop. The bike guy can clearly see the car is moving into a collision course but he doesn’t slow down at all.

    Same thing for the next crash. The bike can see the taxi is turning but the bike guy just kept going, maybe trying to beat out the taxi??? No matter how dumb you are, I’m sure he must know he will not win in a crash with a car but he risk it anyway. When I drive, I can see many people will do this. Risk their useless life knowing the car will be wrong no matter what.

    At 4:42, the guy CLEARLY is looking at the bread car way before the crash. He risk that the bread car will stop for him even though he’s carrying passengers!!! What a retard!

    At 5:10, the dumb asses went between cars, not even looking before exiting the cars. The car clearly has the right of way.

    At 5:49, that is a total flop! Poor fucks do this a lot to try to get money from people. Happen to one of my friends. She got scared and just gave them 500. Her car wasn’t even scratched, showing clearly they did not hit her but probably slap the car with their hands or something.

    Again at 6:39. Bus had right of way, bike retard ran red light. He can clearly see a big ass bus coming. didn’t even attempt to break! Really deserve that shit.

    7:26, guy runs from the car.. hahahaha prob no insurance.

    8:30, again, dumb fuck on bake runs red light. Bread car clearly has a green light.

    And this goes on and on and on everyday. It’s just sad that these people will risk their life like this. I know my life is much more valuable and I usually follow all the lights when I’m walking, except when it’s 100% safe like no cars anywhere I can see. I would NEVER run in front of any vehicle HOPING they’ll stop. That’s just plain stupid.

    • guobao2

      It’s a myth that the car is always at fault and while the straight-out-of-a-rural-highschool traffic cops with little or no formal training might try to blame you, it rarely sticks if you insist on having their superiors called out (which you always should do as a foreigner). Friend of mine was crossing for green just last month and a scooter with 3 people ran into his side. They of course went all Chinese on him, trying to bully him into paying God knows how much for their seemingly non existant injuries. He refused, got the police involved and half an hour later a lieutenant arrived squarely putting all the blame on the scooter. He even arrested the scooter driver for issuing death threats, so always get out, film the scene and keep the camera running.

  • Dafang

    A few things about these accidents, and many I have noticed while here in China.
    1. Law enforcement is usually there when accidents happen, but don’t do anything.
    2. Other people in the area don’t care what just happened, they just continue with what they were doing.
    3. Most of these accidents are because people are not watching what they are doing and not following the traffic rules.
    What needs to happen is Traffic police need to start giving tickets for breaking the rules. People need to watch what the hell they are doing. And people need to help out when someone is injured.

    • Mulligan

      It’s likely that many of these people are on the streets illegally and can’t even afford to pay the tickets.

    • Tommy

      Where I live the system for getting a license is corrupt/broken. Most people don’t know how to drive, but bribe their way into getting a license.

      Even decent, good Chinese people are forced to bribe people to get a license and THEN learn how to drive after they have it. Of course accidents are going to happen with a system like this.

      • guobao2

        Where the hell do you live? Some backwater, nongmin, one-horse-town? Yes you CAN buy yourself a license but it’s are these days and it takes a lot of guanxi. On the other hand I know 6 people who got a license last year, ALL of them had to take at least 30 hours of driving, study hard, go over all the mechanics of a car several times, watch instructional videos and take their tests just like everyone else. Some of them even had to look at pictures of human roadkill.

        I don’t think there is anything REALLY wrong with the license system -although there is of course always room for improvement. The real problem is reality, because if you take to the streets and try to follow all the rules you’ll never get anywhere and you might even be a danger to yourself and others for insisting on following the rules.

        • actionjksn

          It sounds like you’re one of those dumb asses in the video that is running through the red lights and running over people.

    • GodsHammer

      Hmmm… too logical. Don’t you know ‘HERE IS CHINA”!!!???

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

    The REAL and ONLY song of the article

    Ramstein
    -Links 2 3 4

    that song kicked in at 9:38 on the video link!

    nothing but love and peace
    喝茉莉花茶
    五毛党

    • http://encyclopediadramatica.com/China Elijah

      I bow to the wisdom of your choice Kedafu.

      Rammstein is awesome.

  • McCurry

    The cops are idiots. They’re all responsive not preventive. If you ran a red light, yeah they turn a blind eye, only if there is an accidient they will do something.

    and those scooters and truck drivers from out of town are the worse. I don’t even dare to ride bike anymore

  • kay

    When i watch this it seems like scooters/motorbikes are purposely smashing into cars. I mean neither party is slowing down. Meh. Look both ways before crossign the street ^_^.

    • jw

      the bigger the vehicle the more important you are and more priority over the road you have.
      might be a side effect of penis size compensation.

  • blackflagnation

    when everybody and nobody has the right-away at the same time

    • http://encyclopediadramatica.com/China Elijah

      Well said, like watching energized particles smash into each other randomly with no idea of path or speed.

      Hahahahahaha nice.

      • jw

        it’s a problem when you have a critical mass of idiot and hick particles.

  • Ho Hum

    I’m most amazed by the fucking stupid morons in those electric trikes getting hit whilst ferrying their kids around. Hey, moron. You have your kids in the back. Drive accordingly.

    Those people don’t deserve to be parents.

    • http://encyclopediadramatica.com/China Elijah

      Agreed, I’m a firm believer in needing licenses to be a parent.

      Requirements would include the following:

      Sufficient funds/job
      Comprehensive understanding of safety
      An education or skill set to pass on
      Common Fucking Sense…..

  • olli

    What a bunch of irresponsible people. I wouldn’t say they deserve to die, but come on…
    Look at 6:05, how is the car driver supposed to SEE you when you don’t have your LIGHTS ON?

    • Just John

      In the US, this is one of the things they look for in terms of drunk drivers. Alot of drunks will drive without turning on their lights for some reason (Not sure why, I do not drive drunk).

      • guobao2

        And in the rest of the civilized world we had automatic headlights made mandatory in new cars 15 years ago. You can’t turn them off even if you wanted to.

  • Mulligan

    In the last clip, you clearly see the witnesses fleeing the scene, or at lease changing their paths to avoid going near the citims on the street. Nobody stopped to offer any help in these videos. Most of the people turned a blind eye. Fuckin inconsiderate assholes. It’s that goddamn Little Emperor Symptom, everyone is selfish and have lost any concern for any one else but themselves. Really, unbelievable how no one rushes to the scene or even offers any help whatsoever.
    Who’s worse: The blind, inconsiderate, and selfish drivers? or The Look-The-Other-Way-I-Don’t-GIve-A-Fuck onlookers.

    I witnesses an accident Beijing and I was astonished how I was the ONLY one to offer help to the man who got hit on the bike, even if he was in the wrong, he’s still a human being who should be helped up, and taken out of harms way.

    • Rick

      The problem in China is that if you take him/her to the hospital, you are responsible for the medical bills （from what I heard). And on some occasions, you are the guilty party because a lot of cops in China are too lazy to chase the guilty person that fled the scene and grab you instead, and get thrown in jail to rot for being a good Samaritan (case close :( ). A lot of times, the cops/security pretend they didn’t see a robbery because they are afraid to get injured/killed by the robber for a measly salary.
      It doesn’t pay to be a good Samaritan in China.

      But I don’t think this is the reason why a lot of people don’t try to help because too many of them are uninformed peasants.

      As a foreigner, I got very upset at the lack of empathy here. But it’s a sad fact that most people just don’t give a shit except for themselves.

      Watch the following and you’ll know what I mean:
      http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjU0MTQzNDU2.html

      No one called the cops and just watched the woman bleed to death after 7 minutes.

      • chengdude

        So your day job is with the Singapore Tourism Board?

  • jw

    (1:36) that person’s head split open like a can of bake beans!
    i bet them on looks feel hungry.

    always amazers me how many lurkers there are that get off on looking and smelling at human tragedy right infront of their feet.

  • Alikese

    “[T]hose who don’t obey the rules like running red light and therefore cause accidents resulting in injuries and deaths should not only die but also pay fines and losses.”

    ‘Sorry sir, we’re going to have to kill you… and fine you 300 kuai.’

    • Tommy

      Leaving to a Chinese to place “death” as a basic penalty and “paying a fine” as something worse than death.

  • Michael Bruun-Larsen

    The only time I will feel comfortable driving in China’s traffic, is when I get to drive an armored vehicle…

  • john digmeme

    I love the one where the little motorbike just plows into the back of an idling truck that is stopped at a red light, LOL! Why don’t they release the videos here in the west like they do in China? I know we have some pretty extreme carnage up here in the NE USA.

    • cdn icehole

      Maybe Chinese officials are trying to educate the masses. “See. This is what happens when you don’t follow the rules of the road.”

      As for releasing video in Western countries, officials probably don’t want to get into some kind of litigation. Anything can happen in the world of litigation. If someone can sue because their coffee is hot then the sky’s the limit.

      • Just John

        Actually, when I had to go to driving class to wipe my ticket, they showed one of those videos. Yes, it is not put on by the government, but it is put on by some of the safety training companies.

        For john digmeme, you can see a ton of them on various websites, I just doubt the government officially can sanction them for the very reason that cdn icehole states.

      • matt

        These types of video (minus the music score) are commonly shown at driver safety classes in the United States. I know that I saw something similar when I was in high school preparing for my driving license exam. At least in the US, this isn’t a litigation problem as long as the people in the video aren’t easily identifiable, or if their family gives consent.

        And the hot coffee case is a really bad example of “anything can happen in litigation.” That lawsuit and the large judgement wasn’t just about the person that burnt, it was about putting a stop to a dangerous, widespread practice. McDonalds was handing scalding hot liquids to people in their cars (a significant % of McDonalds business in the US is through their drive thru windows).

        Were people stupid for spilling really, really hot coffee on their legs while they were driving? Sure. But McDonalds’ coffee used to be ridiculously hot and they were creating a dangerous situation for no good reason. The large penalty in that case was big enough that it would get a major corporation’s attention and stop them from doing something that was unnecessarily dangerous.

        • cdn icehole

          But McDonalds’ coffee used to be ridiculously hot and they were creating a dangerous situation for no good reason.

          By the time you reached your destination, it’s very likely that ‘ridiculously hot’ coffee would be just ‘hot’. Nobody like cold coffee especially when it’s from McDick’s. As for Liebeck, she was 79 years old at the time and people of that age just don’t have the motor skills of a 40 year old. I still think she was looking for someone to pay her medical bills for her stupidity.

          • matt

            That’s true about the coffee cooling down in transit. The danger was handling the coffee while in a car or, worse, spilling it on themselves while driving and causing an accident.

            I don’t doubt that the woman was trying to get someone to pay for her medical bills. The coffee was so hot that she got 3rd degree burns and needed skin graphs. But covering her medical bills accounted for only about 1/3rd of the damages. Most of the award was for punitive damages (to punish McDicks for having stupid practices).

            The US outsources a decent bit of it’s public safety regulation to individual plaintiffs and the courts by design. I don’t think anyone would remember it if some random consumer safety department fined McDonalds $500,000 but because it came through a court case, this got a lot of (misplaced) attention from people in countries where courts have different roles.

  • Shanghairen

    It’s amazing how people on vehicles of less than four wheels have the intelligence of a fruit fly. I think every pedestrian, cyclist and motorcyclist in China needs to get hit by a car 2 or 3 times until they learn. Car drivers sort of get the fact that driving a car carries responsibility, but just barely.

    In general, Chinese people are just in their own worlds. They don’t pay attention to anything in their environment–you can walk right by someone you know and they won’t see you. A lot of people don’t know more than 2 streets in their neighborhood. Many couldn’t locate Japan or The US on a map of the world. If your Chinese is good enough, you’ll notice that a lot of Chinese people cannot effectively communicate with other people in public–they use hand gestures and expect people to guess what they mean (looks like scenes from Lassie sometimes), ignore people, don’t listen and repeat themselves endlessly. I asked people about this and they say “some people are shy, they are not used to talking to people other than their family members”. This extends to “communicating” with other people on the roads; a lot of people ride their bicycle on a path totally unaffected by other riders–they just expect people to get out of their way (especially if they yell “lailailai” or “dangxin” over and over). There is really no other country like China.

    • B-real

      Vietnam, Myanmar, Africa, India, Pakistan any where in ungoverned and some governed Mid east nations like. You just have been too far outside your little travel box to know.

      The problem is these people are not aware or care about their surroundings. There is no proper prevention enforcement like western nation. Except for the occasional sobriorty crack downs only in metro areas. The civil police enforce is a farce in China hands down. This is going to happen day in day out until they turn making laws to fund their way of enforcement. In this instance money is not the motive to making saftey laws stick, like in the US.

  • paxman

    In EVERY segment, apart from the people directly involved in the accident, nobody… not one person… stopped to lend assistance. Yes, I know the excuses given here as to why, but nobody even slowed down or changed direction. They all act as though nothing had happened. Truly shameful.

    • justmega

      That’s cockroach culture. It’s not much different in HK or Taiwan. There are nearly 2 billion cockroaches globally. Who cares if a few of them get squashed.

      • B-real

        Sad but true. You sound like a follower of Uncle Mao.

      • Jones

        I saw a scooter accident last time I was in Taipei. People were pretty quick to respond. Granted I only experienced this one traffic accident there…but as far as my experiences are go, Taiwan is 1 to 1, China 0 to 300+.

    • Suicidal tendency

      If you really understand the excuse, then you’ll understand that helping the victim will get you in REAL troubles.
      Actually much more trouble than the guilty “driver”.

      Let me explain again:
      The culture of ignoring other people is so strong that if you help someone you don’t know, a damn huge lot of people will automatically assume that you’re somewhat feeling guilty (otherwise, why help?!), and so you’re somewhat responsible for the victim being a victim.
      And if you happen to have a bit of money, that’s even better, so that you’ll be able to pay the compensation for the victim.
      Actually, if you look like you have money and you help, the victim is probably going to consider claiming you’re the source of his/her problem, to make sure he/she will receive a descent compensation.
      End of the story. Cops will close the case just like that.

      You really got the picture now? Most of people don’t give a shit, the minority that does is AFRAID of doing something!

  • Tengu

    Was just in China for a month, Beijng, Wuhan, Xia’n Shanghai.

    You guys need some rules, helmets and inspections. Half of what’s being driven on the road isn’t even street legal in ther countries.

    I was in two accidents while driving in cabs. Never been in one at home.

    The cabs drive on the sidewalk. Honking at pedestrians, bicycle riders. Motorbikes with 3 people, plus food and no helmets.

    Maybe you should think about going back to bicycles again for a while.

    Look at the video, no one respects “right of way” and they’re just running into each other.

    • Jones

      Full-blown chaos! Pandemonium!

  • none

    Is it just me or are the faults of the traffic accidents actually due to the motorcyclist flying into the way of traffic? Even in the West the drivers wouldn’t face any kind of charges because there’s nothing you can do if you’re driving along and a motorcyclist decides he’s Evel Knievel and decides to play Russian roulette with their own lives?

  • Asakura

    This is like a culture shock…. I would be too scared driving there, even in a taxi…..

  • justmega

    Ineffective rodent control.

    • Anon

      Nobody gives a shit in the middle kingdom. Simple as that. Nothing to offer to humanity at all. How sad!

      • Rooboy

        These people have the IQ of a TREE STUMP !!

    • cdn icehole

      your trolling skills sucks. try again.

  • B-real

    I love the Rammstien song they put at the end.

  • Rooboy

    its government policy to have the police do nothing for bad driving, together with one child policy,,,,,,,,,it called
    POPULATION CONTROL !!!

  • Irvin

    They should outlaw bikes and cycles as a public transportation like they did in guangzhou. Way less accidents here.

    Most of the problems are cause by bikes as shown in the videos. But the real reason is because alot of people here are morally bankrupt.

    • eattot

      how old r u , may i know?
      the way you talk seems always between normal and lecture

      • Irvin

        Define “normal and lecture”.

  • David B

    I’ve driven a car in Shanghai for the last 3 years. I agree that most people driving electric scooters and the like are complete idiots, but the truth is a lot of those accidents in the video could have been avoided if the car drivers were paying better attention too. I ALLWAYS look for scooters/pedestrians whenever changing lanes or turning off as I know they are idiots. That doesn’t give me the right to be an idiot too. You geneuinely need to pay attention to your driving at all times.

    • Just John

      Funny part is, when I got in an accident on my scooter here, it was the car who ran the red light, not me.

      In other words, please don’t generalize. I see plenty of stupid car drivers also.

      • B-real

        My car personal driver loves to try and hit the motor scooter guys. His goal is to get a scrape so he can call the cops to get them to pay for the damage.

        • cdn icehole

          Don’t you mean “pay for the other damages”.

          I wonder if the Chinese would be open to a reality TV show along the lines of that video game, Carmageddon.

          • B-real

            Nope, since motor cyclist have no insurance or legal responsibilty on the road. UnLike GTA they if you don’t break anything of theirs but they cause damage to your “personal property” ie. Mercedes Benz = inflated touch up work. Th police get called and an on site judgement is made in driver’s favor. Police makes report leaving out payout, driver makes claim to insurance company and gets double pay.

  • 王老吉

    This is something pretty normal in China I guess. I have lived three years in Zhengzhou and the traffic there is insane. Red light means nothing to people. Rich people with their expensive cars really believe they are better and deserve all to be the first. And where is the POLICE? Probably playing QQ or Happy Farm because is so hard to see them on the street. Nobody wear the Safety belt and it’s really hard to see a chinese person wearing a helmet while driving their e-bikes. So, don’t come with videos like this, they are the result of your own lack of responsibility. Wanna stop scenes like this to happen everyday? Buy a helmet, wear the safety belt and ask your crazy government to put some god dammit Policemen on the street, because chinese people still drive like insane.

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

    Hm… looks like the folks at CCTV, if they pay attention, could have a copy of Cops/Street Patrol on the air in a short amount of time – with the safety messages that should be playing about running red lights.

  • Loopins

    There are many problems with the roads in China.

    1. The lessons they learn to drive a car are ridiculous. They spend the first part of the instruction learning how to reverse the car this takes almost 50 hours of the 60 they have to learn! They dont learn basic gear changing, using the mirrors correctly, clutch control etc. The test needs to be revised to fix the driving skills of people on the roads.

    2. The Police do hardly anything. Many times I’ve seen people run lights, drive down the emergency lanes, drive down the bike lanes only to pass a police car. But the police do nothing about it.

    3. In Beijing the WJ (red) plates constantly break the law because they are above it. The police are powerless to stop them. This is crazy.

    The government ask people why they think traffic in places like Beijing are so bad. But they fail to see the obvious…enforce the “laws” and the traffic will get better because you wont get people stopping the traffic because they are reversing up a express-way because they missed their exit.

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  • http://voyagner.com dan

    Wear a helmet kids.

  • Rick in China

    It’s interesting that it’s almost always the scooter/whatever at fault. I am curious whether they have any concept of traffic regulation. I’m also curious whether drivers have ANY responsibility when a scooter/whatever so blatantly breaks the law and causes an accident which results in their own serious injury or death? Anyone know?

    I know in the west, if a scooter drives through a red light into a bus going through green and faceplants to their death, it’s so sad too bad. I’m not so sure in China, though. I hit a scooter once – although not HARD – and he DEMANDED compensation even though it was 100% his fault. I was under a massive time pressure and didn’t want to bother waiting for police for such a small amount of money, but it always pissed me off that he thought it was his right to ask for compensation. He was going the wrong way on a small one-way street (on the road, not the bike/walk way) which I was turning on to, during construction, and there was no good visibility looking left – I slowly came out mostly focusing on right, which is where traffic would come from, and as I edged out he zipped by and caught my front bumper, fucking idiot.

  • dim mak

    What do you expect people to do, run into open traffic to help? Accidents happen everywhere guys, move along.

  • Going going gone

    Chinese Conspiracy 101:

    Reasoning behind car accidents in China.

    Like the one child policy bad driving is government mandated as population control by stealth. Do you really think a population could drive this badly on mass with out it being intentional. Useful Chinese driving tuition is on the level of non existent, the test is a joke and police enforcement of road laws is pathetic; all of these elements are state controlled. In addition the one in the more expensive car normally survives unscathed increasing the mean GDP of China (added China face).

    Subconscious suicide is another explanation. Coming from the lower rungs of society the vast majority of those being mown down have nothing to look forward to in life except, endless repetitive tasks, baijiu and staring at shiny stuff; if this was the entirety of your life wouldn’t you top yourself.

  • ander

    xieqiang9595: Heze people are in such a hurry?

    Where in China are people NOT in a hurry? Seriously, I’d really like to know.

  • McCurry

    The bigger vehicle always wins. That is why I drive a tank around

  • A Western Driver

    The fact that in every accident, its not possible to tell who is at fault sums up driving in China.

    From my experience, people just generally do whatever they “feel” is right.

    “oh it’s a red light, but no-one is around therefore i can just drive on”. standard.

  • dilladonuts

    The problem stems from lack of education and regulations. The traffic police that are suppose to regulate these situations don’t even know when somebody is doing something wrong, let alone, they are probably contributing to the situation as well. All of this could be solved if the traffic police just did their job. That’s it, nothing else, just do your job!

    • Joe

      Are you sure? Many of those looked more like a lack of common sense. Like say, the guy on the scooter who apparently lacks depth perception, and crashed right into the side of a car? I hope he died to be honest.

      • guobao2

        I was wondering about that one too. If you look at it again, it seems as if the truck is sitting a bit back from the crossing. There might have been something wrong with it, and I also don’t see any lights reflecting from the scooter when it gets really close. Maybe the trucks tail lights were out, and a scooter’s head light is usually so weak it wouldn’t give you enough time to stop when you realised the truck in front of you, especially if you are doing 40. I don’t know,, at least it’s a possibility ‘coz the video really looks strange. Or maybe he was just drunk.

  • Joe

    Hate to say it, but some of those people really deserved it. And why are there no goddamn traffic signals, or even a roundabaout?

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  • mike friend

    I drive in China every day. The common sense gene has been lost in the evolution process. So many go through traffic lights. Seems big blue trucks are exempt from the traffic laws. E bikes , motorcycles, and bikes do whatever they want.

    NO ONE has respect for traffic cops – they are largely ignored and impotent.

    Traffic lights in China? I really think they are just left over Christmas decorations on poles.

  • http://like.fm chris

    You really need to switch the commenting to Disqus.

  • dilladonuts

    @05:28 there is a police car who makes an illegal lane change in the middle of an intersection =P

  • chiize

    what the fark man. in some situations, the car was just right in front of them and the motorbike just runs into it. whats wrong with them??!!

  • Zebadee

    Most of the fatalities/casualties here are a direct result of people who think rules are for other people, not them. They’re ignorant and stupid enough to believe that they’re different or unique from others.
    And people here wonder why some 689 people (on average) die EVERYDAY on the roads in China .., and most of them simply because they’re not paying attention to where they’re going.

  • Pong Lenis

    哈哈哈 Good riddance of those who don’t observe traffic rules.

    Feel sorry for the other involved though.

  • MadeInChina

    what’s the point of traffic lights if no one intends on using them? bunch of rejects driving all over china.

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