At around 3:40 p.m. on December 18, 2020, I was startled awake by a sharp impact-like sound.
I had pulled over by the roadside and dozed off in the car for a moment. When I opened my eyes, I saw a person lying motionless some fifty or sixty meters ahead of my hood. An e-bike was tipped over beside her, and her belongings were scattered across the road. I froze for a few seconds, then grabbed my phone and took a photo. On the two lanes to my left, cars kept coming through: some slowed down to look and avoid the scene, some ignored it completely, and a few stopped ahead to check what had happened and make calls.
After taking the photo, I called 120 right away and gave them the exact location. The doctor on the line asked the usual questions: was the injured person male or female, about how old, was there any bleeding. But I did not dare go near her at first. I was the only one left at the scene, and to be honest, I was also afraid of being treated as the person responsible.
Still, hearing how urgent the voice on the other end sounded, I could not just stand there. I walked over quickly.
From a quick look, she seemed to be a woman in her forties, and there was blood on the ground. By then, three or four minutes had passed on the phone, and she slowly came to. She was wearing a mask, but her face was covered in blood. I told her not to move, that I had already called 120 and help would be here soon. Then she looked at me and asked, "How did I end up here? Was it you?"
That hit me like a bucket of cold water. I told her again that I had only seen her lying there and immediately called for an ambulance, and that my car was over there, not involved.
The call was still open, and the doctor told me her nose was bleeding, so I needed to find something clean, like cloth or tissue, to press on it and stop the bleeding. I ran back to the car, got some tissues, and helped her hold the bleeding. The doctor said the ambulance was almost there, so I hung up.
At that moment, a motorcycle came along the sidewalk. The rider gave me a strange look and asked, "Have you called the police?" I said I had called 120. The way he asked made it sound as if he thought I was the one who had caused the accident. Then he rode off.
After hanging up, I recorded a short video to show the distance between my car and the injured woman and to document what was happening in case anything came up later. This was a newly opened road, only a few months after completion, and I did not see any surveillance cameras nearby.
I did not stay long. I still had ceiling materials in the car that needed to be delivered to a construction site, so I drove off. When I passed her, she was already sitting by the roadside and talking on the phone. I rolled down the front passenger window one more time and told her the ambulance would be there soon and to wait there. She watched me drive away. Maybe she had already noted my license plate.
This was the first shot I took from inside the car, right after opening my eyes, so it is blurry because I had to stretch out the distance to capture it.
This is a screenshot from the short video I recorded after calling 120.
The time of the 120 call and the recording.
Looking back, a few details still stand out: 1. More than ten meters in front of where I parked, there was a pile of gravel, likely spilled from a transport truck. 2. I had been resting with my eyes closed, so I could not tell whether the e-bike was going straight or coming the wrong way. 3. I had only parked, turned on the hazard lights, and closed my eyes for a dozen seconds before opening them again and seeing the scene. I still do not know whether she fell because of the gravel or was knocked over by another vehicle that fled. 4. After going through a lawsuit before, I learned that everything needs evidence. Since then, I have set my phone to record calls.
I would not call myself a witness, but I do hope I do not end up as the prime suspect and get called in for questioning. Everyone is busy, and none of us can really afford that kind of trouble. Most of all, I just hope that middle-aged woman was not badly hurt.