Blogging (again)

So I’m starting up again. Blogging.

Why - well, my friend Michele have been nagging me to do it, plus I’ve been “witness” to some stuff that’s “worth” writing about

Today for instance…

Picking up Victor from Kindergarten. He is happy to see us (Mila is with me in the double stroller) and we take a little walk around the block getting some dinner, desert and zhen zu hong cha (victor’s pick). Crossing the intersection, green light and waiting for the next green light to get to “our side”.

CRASH!!!! I see a scooter sliding alone in the intersection. Accident - scooter hit by a car and the driver of the scooter (woman) was on the ground. I tried to turn the stroller away, so kids wouldn’t see. Didn’t really succeed at that, because this stroller is a heavy machinery. A EXTREME construction (watching too much discovery, ya say!?). Anyway, the green light hits and people (pedestrians, scooters, cars) starts moving and driving like there is nothing to take notice of.
Mind you, the woman is still right in the middle of the intersection and the car too.
Right after I heard the big crash and saw the accident I noticed NOBODY tried to help. All just stared, did nothing but look at the poor woman. The only person who tried to do something was the car driver, who started collecting the woman’s things (I guess he was too shocked to talk to her).

Well, green light. My direction. I couldn’t walk by and simple do nothing, so I stepped right in the middle of everything and scream from the top of my lungs: BACK UP, GET AWAY. STOP!!!! (I might have cursed one or two times, but anyway, it helped!!). I reached for the woman and asked if she was ok. My chinese is bad, so I asked with few chinese words and then the universal words: “You ok”?.
I tried pull her up and she told me it hurt (hao tong) but it didn’t look like anything was broken and there were no blood, so I pulled (gently of course) her up, took an arm under hers and made her walk to the sidewalk. Then another lady came and talked to her and two boys (students) helped the car-driver moving the scooter.

We left, I figured there wasn’t anything more I could do, since I didn’t see the actual accident itself and I couldn’t really explain myself to the police, if they happen to be non-english-speaking or understanding cops.

We then when to buy some nice cool tea to “calm the nerves”. The kids handled it well, I think. They sat in the stroller and didn’t cry or look scared. I kissed them both and talked about the accident with Victor. Here is his version: Car. Scooter. BOOM. Mama help lady Of course I reminded him that she was ok (he don’t have to know, if she isn’t) and that you always have to look for cars, lights etc when crossing the street. Yes, he told me and then - where is the tea, already!!!

This is my first partly witness to an accident in Taiwan, which I’m both happy and surprised for, because there IS a lot of accidents here, especially with scooters getting knocked a few meters along the road. I’ve heard stories about really nasty and bad accidents where again nobody seem to be willing to help out. And talking to hub about this he tells that people are afraid to get the blame for the accident, that the police wont trust your words. Still…it’s not like a pedestrian are going to get blamed for a car-scooter accident (where is my LOCO-face icon!!!).

I had to do something. And I did, wished hub was with me, then he/we could have done more.