Dashcam compilations of Exciting Incidents can be entertaining. Up until recently, the great majority of the compilations I’ve seen have featured either largely American videos, or largely Russian/Eastern European videos; random European, Australian and Asian vids tossed in. But I recently stumbled across a channel that seems to be entirely east Asian… I *think* Chinese, but I don’t know for sure. And after having watched far too many of them, I noticed some distinctions from the US/Russian vids.
First and most obviously, these Chinese videos feature a *lot* more direct human involvement. The western videos seem to be largely one machine hitting another, but the Chinese vids have far more pedestrians getting plowed over. And part of the added human element is the presence of *far* more two and three wheeled scooters and bikes. You hit a car, all you see is metal and glass. You hit a scooter, the human is hard to ignore.
More subtly are the differences in the people. In the western vids, you get a lot of reaction from the people in the dashcam car, whether they are actually involved or not. Ranging from laughing at what they’ve just seen to screaming about it, to yelling between driver and passenger to drivers yelling at other drivers, westerners have a lot to say (even if much of it is utterly meaningless in the end). But the eastern videos are shockingly silent. There are reactions of course, things that I assume to be akin to “look at that” and “uh-oh,” but most of the time the driver says nothing at all. At first I thought maybe they were shocked into silence… but now I suspect it’s due more to being quite blase about it. And that I suspect is related to another thing I noticed: many to perhaps most of the incidents are caused by one or more of those involved being utterly oblivious to their surroundings. The lack of situational awareness on display can be astounding. If I was on a scooter surrounded by cars and semi trucks capable of 70 miles per hour, my head would be on a swivel; these people seem to live in their own little worlds, unaware that other vehicles – or rules of the road – even exist. Pedestrians step out into major highways without looking. Bikes blow through *busy* red lights. Scooters stop in the middle of a fast, busy street for no apparent reason. People on bikes and scooters plowing directly into giant stopped trucks. I saw one where someone was driving a scooter with an umbrella open *in* *front* *of* *them.*
Most of the individual clips cut off within seconds of the incident. But those that go on a little longer demonstrate something else: bystanders often don’t seem to care. In the US or Russia, a wreck would be followed promptly by people rushing in to help (or perhaps to take pictures), but in what I assume to be China, the response largely seems to be “that’s not my job.”
So if you want to see people on mopeds getting clocked by cars and tossed all over the road to the complete indifference of their fellow man, this channel is for you.
Stereotypes:
Russian dashcam vids are the result of vodka (and ice). American dashcam vids are the result of assholes. Chinese dashcam vids are the result of obliviousness.