Image by drewleavy via Flickr
On Friday (misleading blog title), I caused an accident. No one died, but it happened 5 feet away from me, and it was a startling, fearsome sight.
Earlier that same day, a co-worker sent me a link on instant messenger (Vietnamese just call it ”chat”). I clicked and saw a photo of a women who had gotten run over by a bus. You could see her brains laid out on the ground next to her head, a pink, moppy mess. I still have the link in my IM history, but I’m not going to show it, it’s really bad. (picture to the right is just for example purposes)
I hadn’t even known what the link was for, and now that I’ve clicked on it, it remains in my memory.
Back to the accident, I was walking along with Thomas, Jin’s 6 year old boy nearby the apartment. We were walking around District 2 going to get some balls (basketball, soccer ball, etc.) pumped. I was dribbling around with him, half running, and as a motorbike came by, the basketball hit the wrong side of the side of the sidewalk and rolled towards the street. Right in front of the motorbike.
What happened next was like when you see a horse lift its front legs up when scared- the motorbike went over the ball and wasn’t heavy enough to just go through it. Instead, the motorbike was lifted up, rolling over the ball, almost confused in mid air. Like the horse, but not as graceful, and you knew the motorbike wouldn’t be landing cleanly.
I was so nervous in that one to two second span, wondering if something bad happened to the rider, what that would mean to me, an expat in this country.
The bike went over the ball, rising, falling, spilling to the ground, rider included. I immediately thought, remembering the morning’s picture, uh oh. Head injuries? Broken leg?
He and I lucked out. He got up, definitely hurt, but nothing permanent. I quickly apologized and he cursed at me, maybe not verbally, but emotionally. I couldn’t say much more, so I kept silent, just waiting for him to recover and leave on his bike with Thomas by my side.
After 5 minutes or so, he did, with some friends (or were they random passers-by?) who had come over and helped him kick start his bike (a Nouvo)
Thinking about that picture of the woman who had been run over by a bus, I wonder why Vietnamese, or perhaps the world, is so insensitive to stuff like that. People passing gruesome photos over IM link, people watching Saddam’s death video- I’m all for it in the movies, it’s fake and for fun. But when it’s real life, I pass 100% of the time. It’s like when people (Vietnamese are just as guilty of this as Americans) slow down to gaze at accidents, why are people so interested/excited in seeing what is more likely than not a tragic situation with a dead person lying on the ground. Why don’t people at least see the death and think, how can I avoid that fate, instead of getting 5 seconds of conversational/gossip/entertainment value out of it. Especially when Vietnam has one of the highest death rates through road accidents in the world.
There’s also an irony (is that the word?) in the man who was angry at me (justifiably) because I let a ball go into the street, causing potential mayhem. But he wasn’t wearing his helmet, so he himself was lucky despite his ignorance. Will he rethink his decision not to wear his helmet, and this day as a reminder that it’s not that hard to die, or will he just remember this day as when some punk kid almost killed him?
Tags: accident, motorbike, Vietnam
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