emotionless steering wheel
(Baonghean) - The other day I went to Hanoi for a visit, and a friend picked me up from the airport to the city center via Nhat Tan Bridge Expressway. The car was running smoothly when suddenly my friend turned the wheel quickly, causing everyone on the car to fall over. Looking back, I saw: an old man riding an electric bike leisurely driving on the wrong lane of the expressway, and even in the innermost lane! My friend wiped his cold sweat and muttered:
- Sir, this is a highway, not a village road, why are you so reckless? If something happens to you, I probably won't be able to live with your children and grandchildren...
Having said that, my friend told me a story about when he was working abroad. Traffic accidents rarely happened there, only rarely and they were usually due to technical or mechanical problems. There were never any accidents caused by people driving in the wrong lane, running red lights, encroaching on other vehicles' lanes, etc. In short, these were relatively common cases in Vietnam... When he first returned to the country, my friend absolutely did not dare to drive himself when he stepped out on the street, he was always taken or called a taxi because "Vietnam's traffic is like a matrix! Lanes, medians, traffic lights, etc. are there but not there. Anyone can drive whichever way they want..." Of course, that is now a thing of the past, my friend is now a relatively "hard" driver, except that since driving in Vietnam, he has developed a bad habit of swearing.
I keep thinking about my friend’s comparison between foreign traffic and traffic in Vietnam. Accordingly, in foreign countries, everything is done according to the law. Sometimes in an accident, the person who suffers more damage (including human damage) still has to compensate and take responsibility - if the fault lies with that person. On the contrary, in Vietnam, there is often a “big car, small car” mindset. Sometimes, a car driver is driving completely normally, following the law, and collides with a motorbike that is going against the law, the car driver still has to compensate the motorbike driver if there is unfortunately a human damage.
Some people commented that the fact that the injured party can still be compensated abroad is a manifestation of a "rigid, insensitive" mindset. However, if we ask the opposite question: if according to the "rules of the game" in Vietnam, the person who does the right thing still has to take responsibility, are we condoning and encouraging violations, disrespect for the law and the safety of the community? Returning to the story of the old man driving in the wrong lane on the highway, if we ask the question: if in foreign countries, drivers have every right to follow the law - "I am allowed to drive on the road, I am right - you are wrong", then what will happen to the old man? But the problem lies in the fact that, because of such "rigid" rules, the compliance of traffic participants is also very strict. Driving in the wrong lane like that, perhaps only happens... in Vietnam!
After all, what is truly insensitive here is a system of laws and a sense of absolute compliance, or is it the blatant violation because of the thought "The truth belongs to the victim"? In reality, every time a traffic safety regulation or law is violated, everyone thinks "Everyone will have to avoid me", "No one dares to touch me",... But that is the naive thinking of people who see life through rose-colored glasses. Because no one wants to actively collide and cause accidents for themselves and others, but if everyone thinks with the passive, selfish mindset above, then at some point, no one will avoid anyone anymore!
Saying so, it is not naive thinking but rather irresponsible and insensitive to oneself - before thinking about the community. "Everyone will have to avoid me" - why not proactively take responsibility for one's own safety instead of depending on others like that? If we are so easy-going and superficial with ourselves, then when will we live responsibly towards the community and society?
Hai Trieu
