Nothing like Hollywood

I almost witnessed a man getting hit by a car last week.

I guess you could say I did witness it, if you count hearing the screeching tires and that terrible but undescribable sound of the impact, which you recognize instantly even if you've never heard it before and you didn't actually see the accident. I was facing in the other direction, while walking to school, when it happened. When I turned around, there it all was: a guy laid out flat in the street, his bicycle lying several feet away, and the driver of the car rushing over to help. I started back to offer a hand as well, until I remembered that I know little about first aid and less about speaking enough Chinese to be of any real use. So, to avoid getting in the way, I headed on to work. Every few feet, I turned around to see if the guy had managed to sit up or even move at all, but as far as I could see, he hadn't. At least other people were arriving on the scene to help, and there's a hospital just a block or two away from where it happened.

I haven't heard anything more about what became of the guy or even exactly what happened. Since Longtan doesn't have an English language newspaper and the accident wasn't big enough news to make it into the China Post or anything, I probably never will hear. I certainly hope he'll recover.

It happened on an awfully hazardous road, and one that I walk down every day! The main drag through Longtan is busy and crowded, and Taiwanese drivers in general really do treat most traffic regulations as if they were only suggestions. I know we all say that about every place we've been, but I've never seen another place more deserving of that description than Taiwan. The point being, of course, that I can't begin to imagine who might have been at fault that morning. Perhaps the bicyclist pulled out into the road without looking, or perhaps the driver of the car started to turn without using his blinker, or maybe they were both doing something dumb. I know it doesn't matter, but anyone who has ever taken Psychology 101 is likely to try to make sense of these things, even if there's no sense to be made of them. In a sad coincidence, a colleague of mine had mentioned just a week or so before that when she first arrived in Longtan, "another teacher told us the only safe way to travel down that street is to drive a cement truck." It really isn't much of an exaggeration. At least seeing the craziness every day keeps me in line whenever I get tempted to buy a scooter like so many other teachers have.

Needless to say, what I saw made the rest of the day, well, interesting. Every time I hugged one of my kindy kids, every time I reprimanded the class troublemaker, every time I laughed at another teacher's joke at lunchtime, every time I wished I didn't have to correct so much homework...it all seemed so relatively insignificant.
I sure hope that guy will be okay!