I am currently going through one of the worst things I've ever had to deal with in my life and compared to the others I was out with I've got off amazingly lighlty.
To set the scene, I was out with two friends and my girlfriend at one of Yangzhou's nightclubs, enjoying some VSOP and ice tea, around 1:30am we decide to call it a night and head home, what better way to end the night then head to the local maccies and indulge in some good old fashioned fast food.
So there we are, at the counter ordering our various burgers and fried when I decided that I need a piss (as it turns out I couldnt have timed this any more perfectly) so off I go to the toilet, whilst in the loo I hear a loud crash and my gf start to scream, so I zip up and walk out to receive the shock of my life, there is a light brown Merc smack bang in the middle of the McDonalds, literally pinning my friend to the counter.
The first thing that needs doing is getting the car off him, so me and my other friend start trying to get the car off, by this point theres about 20 people stnading around watching, would they help us, would the b*******, they thought a much better use of their time would be to stand around laughing and taking photos, eventually we get the car off and manage, with the limited chinese we have between us, to get someone to ring an ambulance/the police.
My girlfriend now has the driver (a 19 year old boy who has had been driving less than a month) pinned to the wall as he had tried to run away (because he was s***faced and had realised he was going to be in a lot of trouble) other problems flared up as some a**hole was taking photos of my friends severely damaged legs whilst laughing with his frinds, now I admit I didn't react exactly perfectly to this and threw his phone across the McDonalds, which led him to spend the next 20mins demanding money from me for his phone, needless to say he won't be getting a single kwai from me.
Sadly the driver was a worker at a local bar borrowing the car from a friend, so has no money to pay what is going to be a huge medical bill. Fortunately a local bank has decided that if noone else can be held liable they will pay the bill.
This has left one of my friends in hospital for atleast a month, with two broken bones in one leg and one bone broken and a torn tendan in the other leg. The doctors say he won't walk unaided for atleast 3 months. My other friend will be looking at atleast a week in hospital dealing with some pretty brutal cuts to the back of his leg. My girlfriend only got a couple of cuts to her leg as the car missed her by inches. As for me, due to my trip to the toilet I'm totally fine, something I am so, so thankfull for.
It really is hard to put into words exactly what happened on Sunday night, but here is a video released by the local Chinese news, theres nothing too bloody in there I promise:
http://www.yzcn.net/news/guanzhu/2012/0131/184097.shtml (May load slowly, as it's a Chinese website)
There is also a shorter version here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcJ1Iq5vbiAThe video shows how fast the guy was going, what it doesnt show is there is a 30ft pavement between the road and the door he ploughed right through. For those of you that have met her and can make her out in the video, it also shows just how close my gf was to being seriously hurt.
I know theres not much anyone can say to make any of this better but I really did need somewhere to get down in writing what happened that night, I just can't understand how any of it happened.
For anyone who ever thinks about getting behind the wheel of a car after drinking, please don't. It really can ruin peoples lives. The phone call I had to make to my friends mum back in the UK explaining what had happened is something I never want to do again and is also something I wouldnt wish upon anyone.
Comments
That must have been horrible and as for the cretins enjoying it and taking the piss you did remarkably well to retain your composure there.
Hope your friends and gf have speedy recoveries.
Regards to You and the others: Whats the "sentence" the driver looking at ?
Glad you are OK and at least your friends will recover but still a terrible thing to happen, just awful and all because some one had to have a drink.
Best wishes to you and the others.
I hope the lad gets locked up.
Even that news report seems to have added sound effects which is awful!
I take it you didn't go for the happy meal.
Take care fella.
Your mate should have replied "I don't know as i was facing the other way, you dumb f**k".
Unfortunately this happens all too often in Asia, locals go out drinking the martell and green tea and jump in their cars. You see it all the time in singapore
Seriously a quite extraordinary event Stu....I hope your pal is soon back to normal......and in future changes his allegiance to the far superior and clearly safer Burger King.
The crazy thing is before going to McDonalds we'd tried to go to a noodle house, which had run out of noodles!!! What luck eh!
very unlucky to be there at that moment but could've been much much worse.
Wishes of full and speedy recoveries to all.
If anyone thinks of driving after having a few, remember this video.
Drink driving has been a bit of a hot issue in china in the last couple of years.
I remember a big deal being made about party officials not getting away with it when drink driving after banquets.
There was a thing in the paper about the head of the anti-drink-driving unit getting caught drink driving. They threw the book at him.
Can only hope this kid gets due punishment. The fact that a foreigner was hit should well make it more difficult for him to bribe his way out.
Have you guys contacted the consular services section at the embassy? They should be able to give some good advice.
Would have thought compensation would be due BIG TIME - From his family if he cant afford it.
sorry this happened to you guys. Terrible!
It would be nice to think that if it happened here everyone would pitch in straight away and help but I fear that we're also heading down the route of reaching for the mobile first.....and not to call for help.
What a strange world we live in and you did well not to end up lamping some of the crowd.