Woman jumps off bridge into traffic in Chengdu; drivers carry on [video]

A woman was caught on video jumping off of a pedestrian bridge over the Third Ring Road yesterday morning.

(Warning: The video below contains graphic content and may not be suitable for all viewers.)

In the video, which was recorded from the passenger seat of a car traveling toward the Supo Flyover on the outer circle of the Third Ring Road, a woman is suddenly spotted dropping off a bridge at the Yangxi Flyover onto the four-lane highway below. The car in front of the car with the video camera brakes quickly to avoid running over the woman, now lying in the middle of the second lane of the highway. Traffic in the other lanes continues to flow steadily. Meanwhile the passengers in the car with the video camera, after recovering from their initial shock, make a quick decision to call the emergency hotline 110 and report the incident. While the phone call is taking place, the car ahead pulls into another lane and continues on its journey. The woman is seen still on the road, in clear view of the camera, waving her arm about.

The video was posted to the Chengdu QQ forums yesterday afternoon and in fewer than 24 hours has garnered more than two dozen pages of comments.

The discussion comes hot on the heels of the Yue Yue scandal, in which a two-year-old girl was run over by two separate vehicles and left in the street while 18 people passed by, doing nothing. The incident quickly became a topic of discussion among Chinese netizens and eventually made international headlines.

Here are selected quotations from the comments made to the QQ forum. Rough translations by GoChengdoo.

If you want to jump, find a higher place to jump from. Doing it this way you don't die, you just slow down the traffic.

Why is everybody rushing by and nobody gets out of their car to make sure she's OK?

What are you doing just reporting it to the police and not getting out to help?

(In response to the above):

Probably they were all rushing to work, and besides, what good is getting out of the car going to do? Unless you're a doctor or know how to do first aid.

If you want to die, you can't get other people involved in it.

You guys, take a look at this video bearing in mind the Guangdong incident with little Yue Yue. I think that the sad thing is not the person who jumped but society itself—so many people who didn't even stop for a moment to get out of their cars to help.

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This article was posted by Jane and published November 3, 2011

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Comments

- vulpes
  November 4, 2011
- From Spain, BASTARDS!!!
- David
  November 4, 2011
- PSYCHOPATHS!!!
- Jesse
  November 4, 2011
- No comments.
- bridging cultures
  November 4, 2011
- this is just daily news:
  old person hit by one car, then a couple minutes later another one hits
  http://cd.qq.com/a/20111104/000011_1.htm
- 1234
  November 4, 2011
- THE POLICE SHOULD INVESTIGATE THE PERSON FILMING THIS!!! THEY OBVIOUSLY KNEW THE JUMPER WAS GOING TO JUMP! SICK PEOPLE!
- xxx
  November 4, 2011
- this is showing how the chinese are !!!! its a disgrace!! this is a kind of humanity!! the whole world knows, why china not?
- NJC
  November 4, 2011
- The bystander effect isn't just isolated to China. It happens all over the world everyday. It is just more common in developing and 3rd world countries.
- sharon
  November 5, 2011
- Its a sad world when people stop caring about others.. Life seems to have no value to some people.. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference ..
- anton
  November 7, 2011
- You Europeans are obviously crazy. Imagine you are working hard every day, but then some lazy bitch with no education jumps in front of your car and then sues you, and for the rest of your life you will have to support her and her children and your own life will be ruined.
  The only good solution in Europe: get out of the car, call the ambulance, help the woman.
  The only good solution in China: drive away as fast as you can before you are caught.
  When there's no law, you only have to think about yourself.
  Personally, I'm always helping people when I'm in Hong Kong and I will never, ever help people when I'm in China.
- asdfa
  November 8, 2011
- This women should have definitely jumped from somewhere higher? but no one gets out to help because there are too many people in china, and no one wants to be blamed for the incident. If the women were to file charges on the person helping her, would there be any evidence to help him/her out.
- John
  November 8, 2011
- @anton, interesting way to put it and I agree with you - this lady was clearly attempting a scam.
  In Bangladesh (and other very poor countries in the region, such as in Myanmar etc.) if you are involved in a traffic accident, especially if you are a foreigner (but even if you're a local fortunate enough to be able to afford a car) you quickly leave the scene and call the police once you're sufficiently far away to avoid a crazy mob that will come after you and might even kill you, even if the person you accidentally hit was merely injured. Alternatively, they [the family and friends of the victim(s)] may try to extort an unreasonable sum of money from you.
  Therefore, you do the exact opposite of what you are taught to do in the west (and even in China, according to the driver's license exam at least) you run away. And no, you won't get 5 years in jail for "fleeing the scene". Instead, it's quite the opposite - you'll be thankful you didn't have to pay with your life. Unfortunately, this is still the reality in many least developed nations.
  By comparison, across the border in Thailand or Malaysia, you don't run away, but you try and help and get the police and insurance company involved as much as possible to receive a just solution; in China i'd imagine things would be similar BUT no way should you have any sympathy for a crazy psychopath (like this woman) who clearly tried to kill herself or something. No sane person would ever attempt something this crazy!! I'd be angry at the woman for disrupting traffic if anything!
- John
  November 8, 2011
- Of course, I was referring to being in an accident where you accidentally hit someone who didn't jump in front of your car from a bridge! But perhaps there is still good reason [in China] to flee the scene of any accident where you are clearly not at fault - but it depends. I still believe that drivers that accidentally hit pedestrians (not mentally deranged ones!) but normal, everyday pedestrians, would be obliged to offer some minimal help to their victim(s). This means calling the police and ambulance - although this would most likely be the limit offered, but it's something though.
- jason
  November 11, 2011
- sick stupid chinese people.
  doesnt matter if the woman jumped or not.
  go help that poor woman
  you heartless people.
- L
  November 13, 2011
- ya'll act like this only happens in China.
  a woman jumped off a bridge, trying to kill herself, what good are YOU going to do getting out of the car?
  unless you happen to be a doctor or paramedic, what can you do besides call an ambulance?
  what gives you the right to feel morally superior to the chinese, all 1.3 billion, and make racist comments? sheesh.
- Sam
  November 13, 2011
- L has a big point there. In america, only a handful that stop are actually qualified to help. The rest are usually rubber-neckers, and don't contribute more to the scenario than a facebook post later. But thankfully, there are still that handful of qualified people.