Not Intent on Arriving

Warning: the video above is extremely graphic and difficult to watch. Millions of Chinese people are debating the country’s moral customs following a horrifying accident that left a two-year-old toddler gravely injured and likely brain-dead.

Surveilance video paints an unmistakable picture of what happened. The two-year-old, named Yueyue, was absent-mindly wandering outside her family’s hardware store on a narrow street in a busy market. Out of nowhere, a van driver runs over the girl. The driver pauses for a second, as the girl lies trapped between the front and rear wheels of his vehicle, before he continues driving and runs her over again.

When reached by local media later, the man said he had just broken up with his girlfriend and was talking on the phone during the accident. “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,” he said.

Perhaps even more appalling is what happens next. Several people, some of whom have to have witnessed the accident, walk right by the fallen girl as she writhes on the ground. One man walks by without even looking at the girl. A cyclist makes a brief glance but continues on his way. In all, 18 people walk past the girl over an eight minute period before a 58-year-old trash collector named Chen Xianmei comes to her aid (there must be a parable in there).

After searching for someone to help, the trash collector located the girl’s mother who rushed her away to hospital. She continues to live but will remain in a vegetative state.

Tags: 18 bystanders, CCTV, Chen Xianmei, China, Foshan, moral responsibility, surveillance video, vegetative state, Yueyue, Yueyue accident, Yueyue hit-n-run