Stop reckless driving for the sake of life

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By Zhao Huanxin (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-10 14:35

I always feel sad when I see someone get hurt in a car accident. But last week my grief doubled because an old man died after he was struck by vehicles, twice, as a result of possible reckless driving.

According to witnesses, it happened around 4 pm, about 150 m south of the Hepingli East Bridge and two bus stops away from where I work. A passer-by said the old man was hit by a northbound Jinbei van when he was negotiating a street crossing.

The vehicle hit him so hard that he flew over the barrier that separates cars and pedestrians, to be hit again by a southbound Citroen car.

I dreaded getting closer to see the horrific scene.

As traffic was at a standstill, I got out of the bus I was in and took a taxi.

The cab driver later told me that he saw a white sheet over the body of the old man, and police were trying to clear the congestion.

"The van driver could be driving recklessly, but the Citroen driver must be also held responsible," said the taxi driver, drawing on his own knowledge of traffic regulations. "They'll have to pay for the tragedy – but that will be covered by the insurance."

But no money can bring the old man back.

He could be a respected pensioner doing some shopping for his wife who was preparing dinner at home. He could be a proud father from another province, who came to Beijing to be with his children after going thick and thin to raise them up and see them graduate from college.

All of a sudden, he died a tragic and unnecessary death. Imagine how heartbroken his family must have been.

The municipal traffic bureau said traffic accidents claimed the lives of 206 in the first quarter of this year in Beijing, although the press has chosen only to report the most horrific cases involving multiple deaths.

Aren't these tragedies many enough for people to heed traffic safety more?

The taxi driver said the car barriers were convenient for pedestrians to cross the street, but not good for drivers, because they can't see clearly if someone suddenly walks out from the barriers, The waist-high posts sometimes blur and block the drivers' vision.

But if there were no barriers to divide the lanes, some eager and reckless drivers might make turns at any time, which could hinder traffic flow and possibly cause more accidents.

To illustrate how reckless some drivers are these days, the taxi driver said one of his colleagues' car was hit head-on by a truck in the wee hours of one morning that killed two people and seriously wounded two others on the truck.

It turned out that the 29-year-old truck driver was sleeping at the wheel while he was driving at 130 km per hour on the opposite lane!

The taxi driver continued saying that the other day, his neighbor, a 50-year-old man, had his car banged into the ditch by a truck groaning with a big load of coal in Beijing.

I believed the taxi driver could go on and on with more of these forlorn mishaps if I didn't interrupt him by asking how drivers should behave on the roads.

He didn't reply, instead focusing on the road ahead, driving attentively, as if he was answering my query by setting an active example.

The next morning, I walked carefully through the barriers where the accident happened. Blood stains were still on there between the posts. How many of the passers-by walking through the scene know that less than 20 hours ago, an old man was killed because of vehicles zipping up and down the street?

I remember that in Moscow, people usually lay a wreath of flowers at the site where a traffic accident occurred.

Beijing should do this too, as a reminder and remembrance of each life lost in a traffic tragedy in the city.