To help, or not to help

My wife and I were walking to a restaurant in Jilin city, Jilin province, on a rainy evening when suddenly we heard a big bang. We saw a motorcyclist who had skidded under a parked taxi. The man was in pain but no one came forward to help him.

Against my wife's advice that I could be implicated in the accident, I approached the man and asked whether he needed help. With hands clasped together and pain evident on his face, he managed to ask if I could help him reach the side of the road, which, together with my wife, was quickly done. We waited for him to call home on his mobile phone and started walking again after we were certain that he was safe and his family was coming to help him.

My wife bumped into the same man two months later. He had recovered but had a slight limp. He wanted to thank me for being there in a time of need, but I couldn't meet him because I had left China by then.

My wife was reluctant to help the man because she was aware of the many incidents in which the person who had come to the help of an accident victim ended up being accused of the offense. Thankfully she was wrong on that fateful evening in Jilin.

China's legal system has flaws that allow opportunists to take advantage of good Samaritans. People today seem to care only about themselves. It will take some time before someone realizes that the legal system needs serious revamping to protect good Samaritans from crooked opportunists.

A READER, from China Daily forum

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