Migration

To be in Ho Chi Minh City is to be in the middle of an ant nest swarming with mopeds and motorcycles. People dart on two wheels from every direction, seemingly without order. Larger vehicles push their way through the mayhem, much like lions on the chase splitting herds of stampeding wildebeest. I was amazed by their lack of concern for the ‘small guy’ as they plummeted into busy thoroughfares without hesitancy or caution.

Victims are common. The Saigon Times reported matter-of-factly that, last week alone, there were 185 traffic fatalities in the country. If that statistic bears out as an average, it equates to almost ten thousand deaths per year on Vietnamese roads.

As Vietnam enjoys an economic boom its citizens trade in their pedal-powered bicycles for motorized versions. Wealth is still limited, though, and families will often share one set of wheels. It is not uncommon to see three, or even four or five, members of a family stacked like dominoes onto one moped. Little ones are held in mommy’s arms or crunched up against the handlebars in front of daddy.

Given this scenario, bad accidents can take out whole families or, as parents presumably protect their children during collision or ground impact, they sacrifice themselves in their stead.

Billboards extol the dangers of multi-thousand-pound vehicles colliding with their lesser counterparts. But who heeds such signs when you’re simply going about your way in a system of semi-organized chaos?

We saw the aftermath of two motorcycle accidents as we went to and from a location up country to visit orphans. I wondered, as the lions pluck off the inattentive, dazed or confused, how many accident orphans are left as a result?

Our vehicle and others simply skirted around the accident scenes, un-phased by their occurrence or consequences. Just another casualty in the daily migration, collateral damage in a society trying to further itself on the world’s stage.

Our host told us that the greatest fear of these motorcycle riders is to crash and survive, only to be run over by another vehicle. I could see the risk. The crowded surge leaves little room for a delay in response reflexes.

...And so we are left with yet another analogy for our dog-eat-dog world where the crowd moves forward at the cost of the individual, where the errant or slow wildebeest is felled by the predators.

Comments

[Scott]

I've shared many times my biggest "fear" while traveling is the traffic and being in an accident, and I'm not even on a bike.

[michael vinson]

stay in the cab!
mv