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I'm not surprised this happened in Korea....(link to video)
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mcviking



Joined: 24 Mar 2009
Location: 'Fantastic' America

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well before we all say har har har Koreans are stupid and have no common sense check out this gem from my glorious homeland. God Bless the USA....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDkxokZUDug
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Smee



Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

hugekebab wrote:
Easter Clark wrote:
Yaya wrote:
Easter Clark wrote:
She should've been watching where she was going instead of looking at her cell phone. No sympathy! Twisted Evil


And I guess Americans or Westerners WOULD NEVER do that, right?

Rolling Eyes


I'm not implying anything racist. I was talking about the girl. Her nationality has nothing to do with it.

btw, your attempt to incite a racism-fueled "discussion" is fail.


It's not about race, it's about cultural habits.

I saw this video as a classic perfect storm of Korean road culture:

1. Someone crossing without looking left or right.

2. Someone flying onto the pedestrian crossing and not stopping in time (I find this happens around 30-50% of the time I cross a road here.)

Both of these = the accident in the video.

A similar thing happened to me. We were in a car being driven by our Korean friends father. A girl on a bike went straight across the road without even bothering to look, and the driver, who also wasn't checking his peripheral vision (surprise, surprise) hit her and knocked her off her bike. His daughter proceeded to say
'it's ok, it's not our fault, she wasn't looking where she was going.'
Uuuh she was 10 years old and your dad's a 55 year old.


If anyone can't see it, go to the front page of liveleak.com, it's on there.


Yeah, that's right. Korean drivers are scary, and certainly need to be more aware of what's going on around them, but watching pedestrians here makes me very nervous. In the crosswalk outside of my former school---at a busy four-way intersection without traffic lights---students would just run out in the middle of the road all the time. Or, they'd just walk without looking, assuming cars would stop. That's just at the crosswalks, and not even taking into account the people who cross the road at any old place.
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Street Magic



Joined: 23 Sep 2009

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mcviking wrote:
Well before we all say har har har Koreans are stupid and have no common sense check out this gem from my glorious homeland. God Bless the USA....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDkxokZUDug


I think the difference is that people car surfing in America know what they're doing is stupid and do so in large part because it's stupid. It's like comparing a genuinely bad comedian to a comedian whose act is to be a stereotypically bad comedian, or an unintentionally lame band to a band whose artistic vision is to be minimalist and abrasive. The difference matters because no one involved in a car surfing accident is going to defend his actions with a straight face.
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mc_jc



Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Location: C4B- Cp Red Cloud, Area-I

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, who is at fault? The girl for not looking at where she was going or the driver for not stopping.
Chances are the driver would blame the pedestrian because the driver could claim "she came out of nowhere..."

The reality is; drivers usually only stop for red lights and crosswalks when there are other people who are in the way of where they are going. If no one is coming from the other direction or in the crosswalk when they get there, its fair game.

Remember, vehicular accidents are seen as crimes here.
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redaxe



Joined: 01 Dec 2008

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

diver wrote:
redaxe wrote:
diggler wrote:
She was on a zebra crossing. even though they dont stop they are supposed to no?


Crosswalks don't work that way in Asia, cars have the right of way over pedestrians unless you specifically have a "walk" signal


Er...no.

http://eng.rota.or.kr/Eng/Main/main.jsp


Quote:
(7) Pedestrians have the highest priority on the road

Owner of the road is not the cars, it is the pedestrians. Always have the attitude to protect them as if they are the members of your own family.

Pedestrian's actions are not as prompt as the driver would expect, thus it is best to slow down when they appear.

When a pedestrian is crossing the cross walk, stop at the stop line for not to interfere or threaten the pedestrian.

Even in the event of proceeding along the vehicle signal, it shall not be interfered with pedestrian who crossing the cross walk.

Do not interfere when pedestrian is crossing the crosswalk or nearby road with no traffic light or crossing signal.

Pass slowly with the safe distance when passing pedestrians in the narrow street without the driveway and when pedestrians are in the safe area installed on the driveway.

When small children crossing the intersection or playing in alley without the parent's supervision, or when the visually impaired or other disabled crossing the road, take appropriate action for safety or stop.

Be aware that sometimes the disabled person may cross under the overpass or over and on the underground.

Be cautious when the two way street has frequent passing of pedestrians and children may running out of the space between the parked cars.[url][/url]


I don't care what the law says, I'm talking about actual practice on the street. The letter of the law means nothing unless it's generally enforced by the police and observed by the public.
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crossmr



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
It's not about race, it's about cultural habits.

I saw this video as a classic perfect storm of Korean road culture:

1. Someone crossing without looking left or right.

2. Someone flying onto the pedestrian crossing and not stopping in time (I find this happens around 30-50% of the time I cross a road here.)

Both of these = the accident in the video.


I've seen you post some stupid things but this takes the cake.
Do you have any idea how many people are struck in crosswalks each year in north america? Google news gives over 1300 results last year alone and those are just the ones that made news papers and that are indexed by google.

I've watched a car plow between a father and son walking their bikes across a flashing crosswalk.

Let's have a quick gander at the actual statistics from the US:
http://legalcatch.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/pedestrian-accident-statistics/

Quote:
- Pedestrian fatalities account for 11 percent of motor vehicle fatalities.
- Over 180,000 pedestrians have been killed in motor vehicle accidents between 1975 and 2005.
- Pedestrians comprise the second largest category of motor vehicle accident deaths following occupant deaths.
- On average, a pedestrian is injured in a traffic accident every 8 minutes.
- On average, a pedestrian is killed in a traffic accident every 111 minutes.
- In 2005 a total of 4,881 pedestrian were killed in motor vehicle accidents.
- In 2005, the per capita pedestrian death rate was 1.6 per 100,000 people.


From this spreadsheet you can see that Korea has less deaths from traffic accidents per 100,000 than the US:
http://www.who.int/entity/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/gbddeathdalycountryestimates2004.xls

More than Canada and the UK though.

Quote:
OK, I'll swallow the apologist/cultural relativist troll bait.

Actually that would be them swallowing yours.

So tell me what is about Korean road culture that makes traffic accidents more likely to happen here than say the US where they're proven to actually happen more?

If you want to play the anecdotal game, I've routinely seen people in the big city back in Canada walk up to an intersection, not paying attention and step into traffic and get a step or two before they realized they almost got smacked by a car/train.

Compared to the big 7 where most of us would come from (per 100,000)
Canada - 260
UK - 203
Ireland - 226
US - 493
Australia - 265
South Africa - 1138
New Zealandd - 368
South Korea - 403

There are, frankly, countless countries which make South Africa look good.

So, they are better than 2 of the big 7, one of which supplies the majority of the teachers, close to new zealand, and not even remotely anywhere near the upper echelons of the death tracks that are a significant portion of the countries in the planet.

What is it again that doesn't make you a baiting troll?

and since you're british, I assume you'll use that as a defense
http://www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/162469/221412/221549/227755/rcgb2007.pdf

start at page 130.
There are tens of thousands of accidents in the UK involving cars and pedestrians every year. You'd have to lock yourself in the basement and turn everything off to be oblivious to them.


Last edited by crossmr on Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Gibberish



Joined: 29 Aug 2009

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The content of the video is a girl crossing a crosswalk but right as she gets into the street a car nearly hits her, but runs over her foot, the car slams to a halt. She falls down screaming while her foot is still stuck under the tire. The car backs up and she stands up awkwardly.
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coralreefer_1



Joined: 19 Jan 2009

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pedestrians do have the right of way legally. However, given the fact that the human body is a frail bit of flesh and bones and stands no chance against a car/truck, you would think people would be a bit more cautious even though they may "legally" have the right of way.

From the Boston Transcript --

Here lies the body of William Jay,
Who died maintaining his right of way...
He was right, dead right, as he went along,
But he's just as dead as if he were wrong.


Be careful out there people~~
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oskinny1



Joined: 10 Nov 2006
Location: Right behind you!

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Posting statistics for Korea vs. USA is useless. Koreans pay their blood money and nothing goes in the books where as in America everything is documented.

I win.
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crossmr



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

oskinny1 wrote:
Posting statistics for Korea vs. USA is useless. Koreans pay their blood money and nothing goes in the books where as in America everything is documented.

I win.

haha..
wow.
You think people don't try and avoid reporting minor accidents so their insurance doesn't go up? At one time in Canada you were only required to report if the damage was thought to be over $1000.

What I actually cited further down was the deaths. Blood money doesn't bring someone back to life. It might hush up a minor accident, but if someone dies the police are there and it has to end up on the books.

only at the end did I mention the accidents in the UK because the OP is from there and acted like they never happened there.
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