A Chinese toddler who was ignored by at least 18 passers-by as she lay bleeding and unconscious in the street, has died, the hospital treating her said Friday, in an incident that has shocked the nation.
The plight of the two-year-old girl, nicknamed Yue Yue, captured the public imagination after surveillance camera footage showed her being knocked down first by a van and then several minutes later by a small truck.
At least 18 people were shown walking past the girl as she lay in the street critically injured, before a female rubbish collector finally picked her up and moved her to the curb.
Several passers-by can be seen stopping to look down at the girl before carrying on, and their failure to help her has triggered speculation the country’s rapid development and urbanisation has made people more selfish.
Millions of Chinese went online to watch the grainy footage of the incident, which took place on October 13 in a narrow market street in the southern Chinese city of Foshan.
China’s hugely popular weibos — microblogs similar to Twitter — have buzzed with the incident since the video emerged, with many online commentators hailing the rubbish collector as a hero.
But there has also been much soul-searching about why both the drivers who hit Yue Yue and the passers-by in China’s wealthiest province, Guangdong, chose to leave her for dead rather than stop and help.
“The little girl’s destiny made us ashamed because she left this world painfully due to our indifference and neglect,” posted one commentator online after the hospital treating Yue Yue said she had died.
A commentary in Friday’s Global Times daily said the incident had exposed the “dark side” of Chinese society.
“The Yue Yue incident reminds us of where China is standing on the ladder of its moral development,” it said. “This is what happens in a modern society when many decisions are shaped at a fast pace.”
A senior official in Guangdong said the tragedy should be a “wake-up call” for society. (AFP)
Here, the unidentified mother of a two-year-old girl (left) speaks to Chen Xianmei, right a trash collector who was the first one to help the girl Wang Yue after she was struck by a van and left for dead.
