Video of an accident involving a taxi and a pedestrian, which occurred last week in Hong Kong, has gone viral. It’s now being used by the local police as a means to ring the alarm on the need for drivers to pay more attention to the road.
You can see it at the bottom of the page. The Straits Times says it occurred on Po Tung Street in Hong Kong’s New Territories, near Sai Kung Tsung Tsin Church. It was captured by the dashcam of the taxi involved in the accident.
The video shows a group of students on the sidewalk moments before one of them, a teenage girl, comes loose and walks into the street. She is hit directly by the taxi, lifted on the hood and then thrown and flipped in the air, before she falls back on the pavement.
By all means, the hit looks to have been severe, but surprisingly, seconds later, the girl gets up and calmly limps back to the pavement. You don’t see her again for the remainder of the video, though you can see concerned motorists and pedestrians rush to her aid, some of them with phones in their hands.
According to the police, the girl was injured but not that badly. She was taken to the Tseung Kwan O Hospital to be treated for her leg injuries and is expected to make a full recovery. So her walking away calmly wasn’t just her being in shock and not being able to react to the reality of having been hit by a car: she probably was as calm as she appeared.
Even so, the police are using the viral footage to highlight the importance for drivers to pay attention to the road at all times, with no exception. Senior Inspector Jacky Chan (no relation to the Hollywood actor), who was one of the first responders on the scene, tells the local media that drivers must be alert at road crossings, even if they have green at the traffic light.
Similarly, they must be ready to act when they notice someone rushing into the street, as was the case here with the girl. At the same time, “pedestrians should be fully attentive, observe traffic conditions and lights, and not play with their cellphones or do anything that is distracting you from observing the road,” he added.
The video shows a group of students on the sidewalk moments before one of them, a teenage girl, comes loose and walks into the street. She is hit directly by the taxi, lifted on the hood and then thrown and flipped in the air, before she falls back on the pavement.
By all means, the hit looks to have been severe, but surprisingly, seconds later, the girl gets up and calmly limps back to the pavement. You don’t see her again for the remainder of the video, though you can see concerned motorists and pedestrians rush to her aid, some of them with phones in their hands.
According to the police, the girl was injured but not that badly. She was taken to the Tseung Kwan O Hospital to be treated for her leg injuries and is expected to make a full recovery. So her walking away calmly wasn’t just her being in shock and not being able to react to the reality of having been hit by a car: she probably was as calm as she appeared.
Even so, the police are using the viral footage to highlight the importance for drivers to pay attention to the road at all times, with no exception. Senior Inspector Jacky Chan (no relation to the Hollywood actor), who was one of the first responders on the scene, tells the local media that drivers must be alert at road crossings, even if they have green at the traffic light.
Similarly, they must be ready to act when they notice someone rushing into the street, as was the case here with the girl. At the same time, “pedestrians should be fully attentive, observe traffic conditions and lights, and not play with their cellphones or do anything that is distracting you from observing the road,” he added.