In late August, Yin Hongbin, a bus driver in east China's Jiangsu Province, stopped to save an old woman who was run down by a three-wheeled vehicle, only to find himself held accountable for the accident. Fortunately for Yin, an embedded camera on his bus recorded the scene, helping to clear him in the misunderstanding.
Helping someone in need turned out quite differently for Xu Yunhe from Tianjin and Peng Yu from Jiangsu.
Both Xu and Peng said that they had helped two fallen elderly women, respectively, but were both blamed by the women for causing the falls. The courts ruled against Xu and Peng and ordered them to compensate the elderly women.
The two cases aroused controversy, with the public generally in favor of the two men.
Nevertheless, after the cases, some people found themselves wavering about helping those in need, worried about the consequences of lending a hand.
In December 2010, a man over the age of 80 in southeastern Fujian Province fell over when walking in the street, but no one passing by stopped to help him up.
Similarly, on Sept. 3, an 88-year-old man in central Hubei Province who fell on his face was offered no help and ended up choking to death on the blood from his nose.
"The courts' verdicts in Xu and Peng's cases have indeed exerted a negative impact," said Liu Hao, a Beijing-based lawyer. "But single cases cannot justify anyone folding his hands when others are in danger."
