Carry on jaywalking: Pedestrians watch on as car hits uncle at Sengkang

What should you do if you see someone get hit by a car?

The natural reaction, one assumes, would be to render help and check if they've sustained any injuries.

Not so, however, for this group of pedestrians and cyclist. 

On Tuesday (Sept 20), a video posted on Facebook group SG Road Vigilante showed a group of three pedestrians and a cyclist crossing the road while the traffic light was not in their favour at Compassvale Crescent amidst a heavy downpour. 

The group consisted of a couple, a cyclist and a man. 

Midway through, as the man dashed across the street, he was knocked off his feet by a car. In the video, the car could be seen stopping by the side of the road. 

However, neither the couple nor the cyclist who were just mere metres away stop to lend a helping hand. They merely glanced at him quickly and resumed their journey across the road. 

The man remained lying on the ground for a few seconds before eventually picking himself up and hobbling back to safety. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbmExbwySKw[/embed]

Despite being hit by a car, many netizens weren't very sympathetic towards this pedestrian. 

A few said that he "deserved it" and one went as far as to praise the driver for "[teaching] these jaywalkers a lesson".  

However, there were those who were shocked that none of the other three bothered to help. 

In a reply to a Parliamentary question on jaywalking and measures to deter jaywalking by then MP Lee Bee Wah in 2020, Sun Xueling, then Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs said that the Traffic Police (TP) detected about 2,500 jaywalking violations in 2019.

And from 2017 to 2019, there were 59 fatal traffic accidents involving jaywalkers where elderly jaywalkers were involved in about 68 per cent of them.

"TP regularly conducts enforcement operations at accident-prone locations and jaywalking hotspots," she said then. 

"Under the Road Traffic Act, it is an offence for pedestrians to fail to cross at a pedestrian crossing. The composition sum for this offence was raised from $20 to $50 on 1 Apr 2019."

However, the driver of the car may not be faultless either if he did not stop to help.

Under the Road Traffic Act, a driver has to stop their motor vehicle if an accident occurs and report the accident to the police "as soon as reasonably practicable within 24 hours after the accident". 

Back in 2020, a man and a teen girl were jaywalking across a busy traffic junction at Paya Lebar when they were hit by a passing taxi. 

The impact sent them flying and they fell a few metres away.  After landing, the man went to check on the girl and also approached a motorcyclist for help. 

In this instance, the driver of the taxi pulled up at a nearby road to check on the pedestrians. 

ALSO READ: Jaywalking pedestrian sent flying after being hit by car along Balestier Road

melissateo@asiaone.com