Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Traffic

Traffic in Xi'an is crazy. Unlike in America, cars do not stop for pedestrians here. No, instead you get the fuck out of the way. Unless the cops are present, hardly anyone seems to obey the traffic signals: cars just ignore them and will speed on through a red-light, all in a chaotic rush that somehow pans out with little incident. Or at least I thought so.

Today I rode the bus back to my apartment. On the way, I looked out the window and spotted a person next to the curb of the road. This person, who I guess was an older woman, lay on her side, flat on the ground. A small plastic bag rested up against her body. Was this person taking a nap?

I then looked closer and saw a pool of red spilled out around the woman's head. My first thought was that it was paint. But then logic began to register. This was no paint or ink, it was blood, a thick red and soupy blood. As the bus passed by I saw the woman's scrunched face and her eyes were closed. She was clearly unconscious, or worst yet dead, blood splattered on the side of her head.

Then I saw the car that had hit her. A crater of cracks had splintered across the vehicle's front window. The woman that had been driving it was now standing outside, phoning someone. A group of men stood several feet watching and talking amongst themselves.

Surreal. I've never seen someone injured so gravely before. And yet no one was helping this person. Like she was some dead homeless person, merely in the way. It must of just happened, because there was no ambulance in sight. But I suppose there's not much one can do when someone is hurt that bad. Still, it's disconcerting to say the least. Sometimes I wonder: am I ever going to get hit by a car one day? Once I left the bus, part of me pondered heading back to the scene of the accident. But I then realized there was nothing I could do either.

People often worry of catching some disease when they come to China. But it seems that its far more likely they'll be hit by a car. China has some of the most dangerous roads in the world, and I was told by a friend that traffic fatalities happen somewhat often in Xi'an. It probably doesn't help that in America I've learned to expect that cars will stop for a pedestrian whenever.