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Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

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Re: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

#11

Post by nkozyra »

dmm wrote: post #3
mikerichards wrote: post #2

Holy cow, that's some messed up shit. I've never heard of such a thing. And that they're getting slaps on the wrists if any punishment at all because cops are believing their insane stories. What a cultural mess.

When a pedestrian or cyclist is killed by a car in the US, so long as the driver is not drunk and does not leave the scene, the driver will almost never face criminal penalties. What we call car accidents are considered an unavoidable part of life to be resolved by civil courts and insurance payouts. I'd say say the US has a cultural mess regarding cars too.

Even if this is true - and I'd suggest it could use some support - it's a bit different than realizing post-accident that the victim is still alive and then intentionally murdering them.

Re: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

#12

Post by argonaut »

dmm wrote: post #3
mikerichards wrote: post #2

Holy cow, that's some messed up shit. I've never heard of such a thing. And that they're getting slaps on the wrists if any punishment at all because cops are believing their insane stories. What a cultural mess.

When a pedestrian or cyclist is killed by a car in the US, so long as the driver is not drunk and does not leave the scene, the driver will almost never face criminal penalties. What we call car accidents are considered an unavoidable part of life to be resolved by civil courts and insurance payouts. I'd say say the US has a cultural mess regarding cars too.

This is terrible trope that keeps coming up. When something bad happens in a country, just because you claim the US has the same problem does not at all ever make it acceptable. It's a total non sequitur.

And that's without even mentioning the fact that 1) the people in the article actually fled the scene, 2) many of them got out of the car and ran over the person again, 3) in the US you will in fact face penalties if you are deemed to be negligent in some way (you were speeding, didn't have a license, etc.)

Re: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

#14

Post by malkia »

I've heard of a similar story, but in a different context. One of the asian airlines (I don't remember whether it was Taiwan, South Korean, etc.) had problems and lots of crashes. Turns out, people were not accustomed of questioning their bosses, and if this boss was your other co-pilot you would've never even try to correct them. I can't find the article, but it went something like "a western professor" goes to the troubled company and fixes the problem "overnight" by simply retraining the employees that they should be able to judge their superiours.

I'm sorry for missing the critical part here - the actual article, but such cultural traits can definitely surprise people from other countries (like it did me with this one).

Re: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

#15

Post by mc32 »

dmm wrote: post #3
mikerichards wrote: post #2

Holy cow, that's some messed up shit. I've never heard of such a thing. And that they're getting slaps on the wrists if any punishment at all because cops are believing their insane stories. What a cultural mess.

When a pedestrian or cyclist is killed by a car in the US, so long as the driver is not drunk and does not leave the scene, the driver will almost never face criminal penalties. What we call car accidents are considered an unavoidable part of life to be resolved by civil courts and insurance payouts. I'd say say the US has a cultural mess regarding cars too.

These are really not comparable situations at all. If you ever lived there you'd know you're comparing two very different attitudes. If you were in an unfortunate accident where you're involved with hitting a cyclist or pedestrian, there are certain rules and expectations, right of way, deference to smaller modes of transportation, etc.

There the bigger the vehicle the bigger the deference by smaller vehicles by tradition and necessity, it's completely opposite. In addition, you would know that sidewalk and street are one and the same in most places.

And the occurrence of backing up to purposely e sure terminal injury is not uncommon in the least. It's in the news, it's quite ordinary.

Re: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

#16

Post by nicklaf »

statictype wrote: post #9
kelukelugames wrote: post #6

As a Chinese immigrant I am always baffled when Americans visit third world countries.

You're confusing "China" with "all third world countries"

Also, China was a Second World country (at least, back when the distinction still made sense).

Of course, at some point, "Third World" became synonymous with "poor", and was euphemised to "developing".

Re: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

#17

Post by PeterWhittaker »

mikerichards wrote: post #2

Holy cow, that's some messed up shit. I've never heard of such a thing. And that they're getting slaps on the wrists if any punishment at all because cops are believing their insane stories. What a cultural mess.

I do not understand the downvoting of this post.

It is messed up. Completely messed up. Downvote if you disagree.

But please do 'fess up to the fact that you downvoting because you think it is OK to transform an accident into homicide.

Re: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

#18

Post by mirimir »

There's a similar dynamic in Mexico. Causing injury can mean responsibility for lifetime care. Another factor is Napoleonic law aka presumption of guilt. So one may end up in jail until trial. The third factor is ubiquitous graft. After an accident, the party with the most cash gets to tell the official story. So yes, advice is to flee with plates and registration (if any). But I didn't get that killing victims was commonplace.

Re: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

#19

Post by speeder »

In Brazil the punishment for murder is lesser than many other crimes, leading to people murdering investigators (or in one particularly infamous case, a mayor murdered two environmental cops that were going to investigate his farm, got convicted, but still got re-elected).

Also firing a gun and not hitting anything also has a harsher punishment than hitting someone, so unless you are a cop that need to draw attention or something, if you need to fire a gun, you need to make sure you will hit someone.

Re: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit

#20

Post by adventured »

dmm wrote: post #3
mikerichards wrote: post #2

Holy cow, that's some messed up shit. I've never heard of such a thing. And that they're getting slaps on the wrists if any punishment at all because cops are believing their insane stories. What a cultural mess.

When a pedestrian or cyclist is killed by a car in the US, so long as the driver is not drunk and does not leave the scene, the driver will almost never face criminal penalties. What we call car accidents are considered an unavoidable part of life to be resolved by civil courts and insurance payouts. I'd say say the US has a cultural mess regarding cars too.

You're comparing completely different scenarios, trying to paint the US in an artificially bad light.

If you intentionally drive over a pedestrian multiple times to try to kill them, you're going to prison potentially for decades. One scenario is purely an accident, the other is intentionally trying to make sure you murder the pedestrian.

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