Much has been documented in my blog (see posts passim) about the lack of safety shown by Taiwanese drivers and road users, but never before have I seen as much crap going on as in the past few weeks.

Firstly, during a prolonged period of rain, where there were showers every day for 9 or 10 days, I saw at least one accident every day for 9 consecutive days. Most of them involving scooter riders.

The mentality, it seems to me, is that people look at the rain, and think “oh – it’s wet, so I had better ride quicker than usual to keep as dry as possible” or “oh it’s raining, so most people will drive safer, which means I can ride more dangerously”. The problem with the latter is that most people will actually drive more dangerously in the rain here, thus augmenting the problem. And when collisions occur – for example – on the bridge across the river, huge queues of traffic form, making it impossible to get to the destination on time.

Now I am getting used to being cut up by some nob who has decided his Mercedes is much more important than my Nissan, and although I will not just lie down and accept it (honking the horn is a good stress reliever), I won’t just close the gap on the guy to cut him off (and yes it generally is a male driver, but not always!). But the truth is that there are so many riders and drivers out there who are more interested in themselves and can not see any further than that, which causes stupid accidents. Driving 30cm from the guy in front in bad conditions is going to get you a trip in an ambulance at some stage my friend. Maybe not today, but one day your luck will run out. Hurting yourself is self inflicted stupidity, but when you then harm others because you are too much of a dickwad to work out that you need to drive according to the conditions, that’s when you need to be locked up.

Case and point: last week I was driving in to work, and was arriving at a set of traffic lights where I could see a guy standing on the side of the road, his arm in a sling, looking exceedingly sheepish. Just behind him, on the pavement, and deeply embedded in to a telephone exchange box, was his car. I think it was once a Mondeo. Now though, it was going nowhere. Obviously the ambulance had patched him up and he was now waiting for someone to come and pick him up.

On top of that, I really don’t get these idiot parents who will put their child on the scooter, sandwiched in between two parents (and perhaps also one or two of their siblings) without a damn crash helmet. Do they not realise that this is dangerous? Do they even care? Is there a brain cell in that head of theirs that could take a little time off chewing that betel nut to think about the danger the parents are placing their children in by doing that?

This morning, as I was approaching the airport on the way to the office, one of my fears was realised as I got to one junction where cars regularly cut up on-coming vehicles by turning left, instead of waiting for the junction to be clear. And it was once more a Mercedes driver who this time had just knocked a scooter rider off his bike. The guy was trapped under the weight of his bike, his daughter (perhaps just 3 years old) sitting up, crying. At least she was able to cry. With no crash helmet, she was as lucky as they come.

But I doubt the rider of the scooter will change his ways by perhaps spending the $3 US to purchase a child’s helmet. After all, what’s his kid’s safety when he can buy a whole bag of betel nuts with that cash?