Jul 27, 2015, 2:22 PM

So this happened in my neck of the woods today.

This is a source of RL Anger on several grounds.

  • First, the Captain Obvious issue: how the FUCKING FUCK do you "forget" to screw down the access plate after servicing your escalator? People who did that need to get shoved down the neighbouring escalator just as an illustrative lesson in care and attention. (Not for them, obviously. For those who follow.)
  • Second, the mother did the right thing in shoving her son forward. It's tragic that this is also probably what killed her. See, escalators typically have a huge empty space right at about where that plate fell down that's big enough for two adults to stand in while working on the machinery. Had she fell straight down she'd have been safe. Injured, yes. But not dead. Since, however, she had to push her son forward to rescue him, she was angled back and got caught up in the machinery. This is what killed her.
  • Third, while the actions of the three staffers there were laudable in intent, they contributed to her death. One (correctly) caught the child and dragged him to safety. One (also correctly) caught on to the woman and tried to hold on to her, ultimately a futile task. The third one, however, stood there and looked on in horror (or tried to do the same as the second) and this is what turned what would have been undoubtedly serious injuries into fatal ones. Had the third one taken a half-step to the right and pressed the fucking cut-off switch (you can see the cover for it once the trash can gets knocked over) the mother would likely have been crushed a little, perhaps lightly lacerated, but otherwise alive. Since, however, she, like most Chinese people, is completely oblivious to her surroundings and what things actually mean (the lack of intellectual curiosity here is a constant piss-off factor for me), she doesn't know to do this. (I just sat my wife down and forced her to watch the video with me again, pointing out where the cut-off switch is and how to use it. Just to make sure that my wife, at least, comprehends the idea of shutting things the fuck off.)
  • Fourth, comments on news sites. Holy fuck are people assholes. I think the worst reaction by far, though, and it's one I've seen everywhere, is "Oh, what's one dead Chinese person to a country with 1.6 billion?" The staggering, shit-headed hypocrisy of this is truly astonishing. In the same sentence that these shitheels imply that the Chinese just don't care about the lives of other Chinese, they are themselves showing exactly that same "ho-hum, another dead person" attitude they're trying to decry.