Two-Year-Old Hit-and-Run Victim Left to Die in Street in China

[meegbear]

Last week, a two-year-old girl wandering in the street in a market in Foshan, China, was hit by a van. The driver stopped for a moment and continued on, rolling over the girl again with the van's rear wheels. Over the course of the next seven minutes, as she lay in the street bleeding, 17 passersby walked over and around her—one truck ran over her again—without helping.

There's surveillance video of the accident and aftermath here if you want to ruin your week. Eventually a trash collector stopped to look after the girl and call an ambulance. While some reports indicated that she had died of her injuries, the Guardian says she is "braindead...and could die at any time." Why would a bicyclist ride past a dying two-year-old lying in the street, glance at her, and carry on? Why would a woman with he own child walk past a bleeding little girl without stopping? From the Guardian:

The widespread reluctance to help strangers has already lead to an anguished public debate in the country. Many say they are too scared, blaming extortion attempts by people who have accused Good Samaritans of causing their injuries –- and judges who have backed such claims. But some talked of a new moral low after seeing passersby –- including a woman holding a small girl by the hand – walk around a two-year-old lying in a pool of blood....

One (online commenter) said that while the footage was heartbreaking he would have been "numb" to Yueyue too. "Would you be willing to throw your entire family's savings into the endless whirlpool of accident compensation? Aren't you afraid of being put into jail as the perpetrator? Have you ever considered that your whole family could lose happiness only because you wanted to be a great soul?" he wrote.

http://gawker.com/5850507/two+year+old-hit+and+run-victim-left-to-die-in-street-in-china

[Contrary1]

1. Because she was a she...a little boy would have been rescued. n/t

[meegbear]

2. Exactly ...

horrible that people would let that happen.

[jwirr]

10. Dangerous to be a female in China.

[Liberal_in_LA]

15. apparently there is plenty of outrage in China over this incident.

[get the red out]

3. Horrific

China is a mess; we are a mess. Sometimes I just think our entire world is a damned mess. Humanity is sliding backwards at a very fast pace.

[Lilyhoney]

4. Too bad this dog was not around to save her.

Dog saves dog, video. Amazing.



http://www.youtube.com/v/ofpYRITtLSg

[FedUpWithIt All]

5. This is just a sick story all the way around and causes great disappointment in humanity

Here is a site keeping updated with translations of the current media reports from China...(warning: any video there is extremely disturbing and painful to watch)

The current situation from the mother is that the child is not brain dead, has light sensation in her hands and feet and that although she is bad shape the prognosis has improved slightly.

http://storyful.com/stories/1000009859

The driver of the original van, who stopped after realizing he hit something and CHOSE, after stopping for a moment, to leave the scene by driving over the body of the baby with the rear tires as well, had this to say..."If she is dead, I may pay only about 20,000 yuan ($3,125). But if she is injured, it may cost me hundreds of thousands yuan."

http://shanghaiist.com/2011/10/17/foshan_toddler_yueyue_still_under_i.php


The one bright spot in this story is this woman. She stopped and helped, even though she was told by nearby shop owners to mind her own business. In a further attempt to show how low and pathetic people can be, this poor woman is now being attacked as one who only helped to seek fame. After her kindness in attempting to assist the child she was also taken to the site of the mother having a grief breakdown, by the media, and attempted to comfort her and broke down into tears herself at the sight of the heartbroken woman. I plan to find a way to send some sort of reward to this woman.

From the report..."She has become a celebrity after the video recording the behavior of the passers-by was uploaded online. Some people asked her whether she helped the girl because she wanted to be famous, which hurt her and her family's feelings. Chen said she helped simply because it was a natural response for her. "


http://mobile.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=485020

[geardaddy]

6. Because if the person hit is dead, the driver is not responsible for medical bills

and ongoing care.

This is how it works in both sides of the Taiwan Straight.

[Shagbark Hickory]

7. The first van is bad enough but there was a second van that rode over her feet.

They should both get the chair. (Figuratively speaking)

[HughBeaumont]

8. No surprise why corporations send all the jobs over there . . .

. . . seeing as how little human life is valued in a nation where America's population is a mere rounding error. It's a detriment they both share. For the garbage scavenger . . . "so shines a good deed in a weary world".

[REP]

19. That's simply not true. Chinese people do not deserved to be maligned this way.

The actions of some in this video were truly hideous, but it does not demonstrate that Chinese people value life any less than the Kitty Genovese episode demonstrates that no American will help another being attacked. Chinese custom, culture, language etc is different from what we in the west are used to in some ways, but it doesn't change anyone's basic humanity (or lack thereof).

[Speck Tater]

9. I hear that Chinese people figure there's more than enough people already.

After all, China has more piano tuners than America has people. We seldom stop to realize how unbelievably massive their population is compared to ours. One source gives their population as somewhere between 1.3 and 1.6 billion. That's a margin of error of 300 million. In other words, their margin of error is as big as our whole population.

[texanwitch]

22. There is a shortage of women in China now, everyone wants boys.

That will help with the population.

Watching the Mother and Father of the little girl was hard.

Bless the woman who stopped to help.

I think it is so hard to deal with because it happened to a small child.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. horrific!

[mod mom]

12. UPDATE 2: Apparently media reports are wrong. The girl isn't dead and still remains under intensive

at the link

[HipChick]

13. No excuse, but this might explain some of this behaviour

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/08/chinas-good-samaritans-count-cost

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. Update - Chinese outraged, drivers caught, mom bows to woman who helped toddler, father angry

Wang remained in critical condition Monday afternoon in a military hospital in the nearby city of

"I'm still so worried," said Wang Chichang, who runs a hardware store in the Foshan market, as he waited for updates from doctors.

At the time of the accident, Wang was busy tending his shop while his wife was hanging laundry, and neither noticed their daughter had wandered outside, state media reported.

"I feel helpless and angry," the father said. "Had one passer-by stopped to help earlier, this whole thing wouldn't have been so tragic."

Police have caught and detained both drivers, state media reported. Wang, the father, told CNN that the van driver had earlier called to offer the family money, but refused to turn himself in.

The heroine in the video turned out to be a 58-year-old scavenger named Chen Xianmei.

"Blood was coming out her nose and mouth," Chen told local reporters. "I didn't understand why no one else had carried her from the street."

In emotional video posted online, the girl's wailing mother bows on her hands and knees, her forehead resting on the ground at Chen's feet -- a symbol of extreme deference to show the family's deep gratitude for her daughter's rescuer. The mother is inconsolable as loved ones lead her -- her body as limp as a rag doll's -- from the scene.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/17/world/asia/china-toddler-hit-and-run/?hpt=wo_c2

[RebelOne]

16. This video has gone viral now. n/t

[Rex]

17. This is no different then in America when a man was mugged and murdered

on a street corner and pedestrians took pictures with their camera phones as they walked by as he bled to death. Not a one called 911 or helped in any way, shape or form.

It says a lot about the human race and where we are at right now.

[AngkorWot]

18. If you really want to consider the darker aspects of human nature..

consider the reasons why this video has become viral.

[REP]

20. Outrage; get to feel self-righteous without risk; same reason some people like weepy movies...

I think there are more less prurient reasons than the snuff video aspect. Still kinda creepy, but not as nasty. And no, I'm not watching it.

[AngkorWot]

21. ...

1. They want to watch a little girl get run over by a car
2. They want to see how awful those horrible chinese people are

[REP]

23. Your #2 is most of my reasons, including self-righteousness

I still think your #1 is more like #5, but it's #1-100 why I'm not watching the video.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. The value of life.