Wham

I remember sitting in a car doing a hundred and twenty kilometers an hour on a rain slick highway. I recall sitting in the back seat watching my driver nod off, almost sleeping. I also recall seeing wreckages on the most dangerous highway in the world.

An today I saw a dead man lying on the street after an accident. The taxi had deep dents on it's right side where the small lorry had hit it. The taxi driver made it, but the guy driving on the open lorry laid on the road where he landed from the impact.

The taxi drivers here are among the most desperate drivers. They have a constant deadline, bitching customers and an attitude of a person who has to deal with Chinese traffic day in and day out. They are the ones doing 60 through a busy intersection and cutting lines. I know, everyone who's been to China says the drivers are crazy and have their own horror stories, each more terrible than the last. It's a kind of a penis measuring contest, sharing these stories, except the winner has been closest to death on four wheels. My regular taxi driver came to pick me up with two new gashes on the front hood and a broken light cover.

The taxis in Taizhou have the rear seat seatbelt tucked behind the seat so that it's impossible to remove. Nobody wants to wear the belt, so the drivers put it out of the way. Or perhaps it's a way of them to hope for a quick death instead of being painfully crippled.

OP out.