http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1AwknhZLYs
 |
| Chen Xianmei (right) a 57-year-old trash collector and part-time cook from the southern Chinese city of Qingyuan, removed the toddler, Yueyue, after at least a dozen passersby ignored her lifeless body in the middle of a Foshan wholesale market. |
Tue Oct 18 2011
Josh Tapper
Staff Reporter
TheStar.com
After a Chinese toddler was run over by a car and left for dead by passersby in a Foshan market, some are suggesting China’s legal system may deter Good Samaritans from helping accident victims.
A video culled from surveillance footage and posted on YouTube and its Chinese equivalent, Youku, shows a van driver striking the 2-year-old girl, pausing with his vehicle straddling the girl’s torso, then driving forward, running her over a second time with his back wheel.
None of the 18 people who saw the 2-year-old’s bloody body stopped to help. The girl, named Yueyue, was then run over again by a light-duty truck.
In Ontario, among other places, a Good Samaritan Act protects from liability those who aren’t health care professionals who perform first aid on a victim at the scene of an accident. In many European countries, such as France and Germany, Good Samaritan laws impose on citizens a duty to rescue.
In China, neither type of law exists, says Pitman Potter, a law professor and Hong Kong Bank Chair in Asian Research at the University of British Columbia.
“That kind of system dissuades people from helping,” Potter said. “People have been either sued by the family of the injured person or held responsible by local authorities for the harm, and so getting wrapped up in that is something people want to avoid.”
In 2006, a Nanjing man who escorted an elderly woman to the hospital after she broke her leg was ordered to pay 40 per cent of the woman’s medical bill. The rationale: It was inconceivable that the man would go to such lengths to help the woman if he wasn’t somehow responsible for her injury.
“The reasoning of the courts is that if you hadn’t done it, why would you have taken them to the hospital? No normal person would have taken them,” said Donald Clarke, a law professor at George Washington University who maintains a blog on Chinese law.
Some Chinese sources also suggest the van’s driver left the girl to die because compensatory damages for death are often less than for a long-term injury. For the latter, damages might include medical expenses and income compensation for missed-work time over many years. Death involves a one-off payment.
“If she is dead, I may pay only about 20,000 yuan ($3,180),” the van driver told the China Daily before he surrendered to police. “But if she is injured, it may cost me hundreds of thousands of yuan.”
China introduced compulsory car insurance five years ago. But an article in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post earlier this year said many drivers ignore the requirement.
According to Potter, personal liability insurance is also uncommon, meaning it would be financially prudent for a driver to flee an accident.
Some Chinese social media users have called the general indifference toward the girl a sign of a deteriorating moral society.
“This society is seriously ill,” commented one poster on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo. “Even cats and dogs shouldn’t be treated so heartlessly.”
Regardless, Yueyue’s mother told the China Daily she will not judge those who didn’t help her daughter, who remains on life support in a Guangzhou hospital.
“I bear no grudge and refuse to be disappointed by society,” she said.
9 comments:
I would like to describe myself as helpful and willing to help anyone in need. Isn't this kind of phenomena happening in Cambodia? Almost every time i go to Cambodia I have seen at least one occasion and been told to stay away or otherwise you will be the victim of the crime yourself. That exactly what I did. do you blame me or society or the Government or all the above.
I do not understand, why most government laws are like this. As the Van driver said, if she is dead then he is entitled to compensate only $3,180, however,if she is seriously injured then he has to pay a lot. The same in Cambodia situation that is why most of the drivers after they had hit someone then they have to turn back to hit again to make sure that the victims are already dead. Dummy sic this laws and culture!!!
The third world countries' leaders have no feeling or heart. The only time they have feelings when they're with the prostitutes or their wives.
Dogs in the Western countries are treated better than human life in third world countries. They take their dogs to clean teeth, hospital for check up.
To these stupid drivers put them in jail for life. How can the second truck run over the baby again? Do they sleep driving or drunk driving? These are stupid ignorant people including the passer-by. At least they should call police to report the accident and move her away from traffic as the old woman did.
I felt so hurt by this video because I, myself, have children too.
It happened in Cambodia a few months back that the robber shoot and killed the woman outside the market and the passer-by just take a look and do nonthing to help her.
Best wish to the little girl and recovery soon. Miracle will help you survive this tragedy.
1:31PM! YES! goverment responsible for all thing in the country! when same bad and stupid thing hapen all over the place!
That why we people choose government to look up and prevent bad thing to the country and people!
If the gorvernment have no vision and don't know how but DICKhead we should chose the one who can!
Is china a real Nation or just in time to break?
i think that's up to the law school to discuss, not cambodia blog, you know!
It just shows that human in the modern day of materials have lost touched with humanity.
A poor lady has a better heart for humanity.
Shame on all of passers-by who did nothing, the stupid second truck driver and 11:41 PM who dared to chastise everyone here who talked about this case. There is more to the world and huminity than just Cambodia.
11:41 PM, you keep writing "god bless..." all the times. You don't understand at all what you write!
Even any dumb god would take a moment to discuss this case on this KI Media blog!
We chinese-khmer are not like the mainland--inhuman greedy and heartless. Shame on you red china.
Sad dame those people in that city heartless...now how do you thinking the Chinese government going to help Cambodia people?
Post a Comment