FEBRUARY 4, 2015 8:56 AM February 4, 2015 8:56 am
Once again, video footage of a citizen, lying helpless in the road as passers-by ignore him and a car runs over his body, has set off outcries online about apathy in Chinese society.
On Tuesday, state-run media reported that a 57-year-old man in Yuhuan County, Zhejiang Province, staggered and collapsed on Sunday afternoon near the turn of a small lane. Over the next eight minutes, surveillance video shows, four motor vehicles passed and nearly two dozen pedestrians walked by. One man got out of his car after seeing the man lying on the ground, but only looked at him and motioned the car forward before stepping out of the frame. No one offered assistance.
Finally, a white car made a right-hand turn at the corner and ran over the man, dragging him away. On Wednesday, The Beijing News reported that the man had died. It said that his name was Chen Xiwen and that he had worked as a bricklayer in his younger days.
News of his death touched a deep nerve in China. An article posted on the Tencent QQ News website had attracted more than 46,000 comments by Wednesday evening.
“This is the unique characteristic of China,” a post by Ping Tan Yi Sheng said. “To speak honestly, why have people become so coldhearted and without emotions? Actually the reason is the failure of Chinese education. This country has let its people become coldhearted and without emotions.”
Another post, under the name Love in the Heart, said “Everyone is scared in the event of a fire to help old people. But if someone just called the police, or called 120 for emergency assistance, the old man would not have been run over by the car.”
An earlier incident in October 2011 had prompted much soul-searching: A two-year-old girl named Wang Yue, known also as Yue Yue, was run over by two vehicles in Foshan, Guangdong Province. Surveillance video showed her lying bleeding in the road for more than seven minutes as at least 18 people skirted around her. A trash collector helped her, and she was taken to a hospital but died eight days later of her injuries.
One factor that has been cited in the failure of witnesses to help victims is a fear of being held legally responsible. Cases of people who have tried to help someone in need and who are then accused of causing the accident are thought to have discouraged many passers-by from getting involved.
