First accident.....

Clearly China is not as safety mad as most Western states - perhaps due to the lack of a culture of suing. In theory this should make people more cautious but as anyone who has visited Beijing the roads are the obvious exception. I jumping in a taxis for a ride back to work and as normal there were seat belts in the back but nothing to clip them into - seat belts seemingly are reserved for the drivers only. Having successfully negotiated the roads and traffic the taxis pulled off the main road and onto a parallel slip lane and pulled up at the side while I rummaged round to pay the driver. Cash handed over in the normal ritual of smiles and nods I step out the taxis and onto the pavement - at least that was the plan. A fraction of a second too late as I opened my door the driver shouted but the door had already clipped the handle bars of a moped taking advantage of the small gap between taxis and curb to overtake the rest of the traffic flowing around the other side. Needless to say the moped driver rolled off the bike and with a thump hit the ground. Of course concerned I leapt out to assess the damage, with helmets being rare even a simple tumble could be fatal. The taxis driver was also concerned but he chose to demonstrate this by jumping out, shutting my door, jumping back in and driving off. The lass on the floor seemed a bit groggy and luckily someone stepped over to help who could speak Chinese and English to help with the communication. A minute or two later with the moped returned to the upright position she was back on her way insisting she was fine. A little shaken I made it the rest of the way to the office but couldn't help wondering what would have happened if there had been serious injury; not everyone has medical insurance here and without it there is little chance of getting any attention. In this case I would have felt very guilty, even though the blame was probably shared, and for certain it would not have been much fun to live through for either party.

I now look twice before getting out of a taxis...