Korea's 'inhumane' passengers

A taxi stands idle with its doors and trunk open in Daejeon on Aug. 25. The taxi's driver lost control due to a heart attack, but its passengers left the scene without even calling for help, in a hurry to reach their destination. / Captured from SBS

By Park Si-soo

Imagine you are in a taxi and the driver suddenly loses control due to a heart attack. The quick-thinking driver stops the car while still conscious, avoiding a possible deadly collision.

What would you do then?

A natural reaction would be to check the driver’s condition and make an emergency call if he/she is still unconscious. Those trained in first aid might do CPR to get the driver’s heart functioning again.

You may take these reactions for granted. But not everyone seems to think so.

In the past two months, two taxi drivers in Korea suffered heart attacks while transporting passengers -- the first incident was in Daejeon on Aug. 25, the second was in Seoul on Sept. 30.

The drivers managed to pull over their cars before losing consciousness.

So it was the passengers’ turn to help the drivers. But they did nothing. Surprisingly, they hopped out of the taxis as if nothing has happened, pulled their luggage from the trunk, hailed another taxi and left the scene smoothly, leaving the stricken drivers without making any effort to help.

Pedestrians, curious about the open trunks, found the drivers slumped over the steering wheel. The drivers were finally taken to a hospital, but it was too late to save them.

Police confirmed what they described as “inhumane” behaviors of the passengers after looking at video footage of the dashboard cameras and surrounding CCTVs.

Police tracked down the passengers based on the footage and confirmed their identities.

One of passenger reportedly told police, “We had to leave (the scene) in a hurry to catch the airport shuttle bus and catch our flight.”

Calls are mounting for the irresponsible passengers to be punished. But they cannot be punished because the law does not require people to offer reasonable assistance.

There are now increasing calls for Korea to introduce a“Good Samaritan law,” a criminal Act adopted in advanced countries such as the U.S., Canada and Germany under which people can be punished for abandoning those believed to be seriously injured.