Thousands of taxis in Chengdu spontaneously transported the wounded, and the vice governor of Sichuan was moved to tears
Topic: The devastating earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan
In the early morning of May 13, on the Chenggan Expressway, there were endless torrents of taxis everywhere, forming a touching landscape.
City Spirit in "Shocking Pain"
After the 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake, Chengdu’s brothers were actively enthusiastic about disaster relief, demonstrating the shining Chengdu urban spirit
Lai Wei, the post-80s generation who usually made the unit leaders feel difficult to manage, left the company’s files, and the first page was the "review letter"; Lin Jianyuan, who usually quarreled with passengers for 1 yuan, was also complained; Ma Bing, who always complained about earning less money… However, when the 5.12 Wenchuan earthquake occurred, they all seemed to have changed into a different person and spontaneously threw themselves into the rescue. And thousands of other Chengdu taxis drove onto the Chengyin Expressway, urgently delivering the lives that needed to be saved. This magnificent scene moved Vice Governor Li Chengyun to tears.
They were hailed by netizens as "the best taxi drivers in China".
The urban spirit of Chengdu shone brightly on these brothers…
The first time the earthquake happened, they made a decisive choice
Shoot at the disaster area
Just because "I have to see it"
"Are the tires leaking again?" The Jetta taxi driven by 25-year-old Lai Wei was suddenly shaking as he approached a crossroads on the Qingbai River. The passenger next to him said: "It’s an earthquake!" Lai Wei followed the sound and saw that the crowd of people rushing out of the roadside houses was like ants on a hot pan, densely packed, some screaming and crying, and many people took out their mobile phones and dialed anxiously. The houses were shaking, and the roof billboards were tumbling, and some fell off.
Moments later, news of the earthquake came from the Chengdu Jiaotong Station. He repeatedly called his girlfriend and his parents at home in Shuangliu, but his mind went blank. Lai Wei, who was born in November 1982 with a flat head and thick eyebrows, is a taxi driver for Classic Taxi Company.
All afternoon, he returned to Chengdu from the Qingbai River in a daze. Many people had gathered on the auxiliary road of the Third Ring Road, some with dogs, some with bedding, and tents were set up in twos and threes with colored strips of cloth. There were also many people on the green belt. Traffic congestion.
At this time, the only news of the earthquake came from the almost hoarse voice of Sun Jing, the live streaming host of Chengdu People’s Broadcasting Station Traffic Frequency. Lai Wei was very flustered and had not known the news of his parents and girlfriend, but he decided to go to Ximen first to "go and see".
Mr. Lai’s colleague, Hong Wei, was also anxious. At 9:30 p.m., Hong Wei went to a gas station on the Yangxi Line to fill up. Seeing ambulances galloping from Dujiangyan "whizzing" past him, he realized that the disaster in Dujiangyan must be terrible, and there must be many wounded waiting to be rushed out. "I have to go and see!" Hong Wei said in his mind. After filling up, his green Jetta was shot in the direction of Dujiangyan like an arrow from the string. "It was just instinct," Hong Wei told reporters later, who was running faster than the ambulance at the time.
It is urgent to save people, and they all agree
Rain Night Help
Thousands of taxis pass on life
At about 22:00 on May 12, Hong Wei marched in a torrent of vehicles to Dujiangyan City, more than 40 kilometers away. At this time, Dujiangyan City was raining heavily and was dark. Hong Wei asked loudly for the location of the hospital. Walking to an old street, through the beam of light of the headlights, Hong Wei saw that in front of a multi-storey residential building that had collapsed into "construction waste" only about 20 meters high, people were struggling to dig people from the rubble in the rain.
Hong Wei stopped the car and was about to go out to inquire about the details when the door was pulled open, and a man with a broken leg and blood was stuffed in involuntarily. Without saying a word, Hong Wei turned around and flew towards Chengdu. In order to ensure safety and time racing, he did not dare to say a word to distract himself. At about 11:40, Hong Wei took the injured man to Chengdu Jinsha Hospital and handed it over to the healthcare workers who were waiting nervously at the hospital gate to receive the earthquake victims.
Before he could take a breath of air and drink a mouthful of water, Hong Wei immediately turned around and drove towards Dujiangyan for the second time. When he arrived at Dujiangyan again, it was already midnight on the 13th. At this time, it had rained heavily in Dujiangyan City, and through the chaotic crowds and ruins, Hong Wei went to the gate of Dujiangyan First People’s Hospital, where the most injured people were admitted. This time, just like the last time, the car had just stopped, and the door was pulled open by two armed police who were rescuing people at the scene. A woman with a serious waist injury was carefully placed in the back seat of the car.
When he returned, Hong Wei was surprised to find that his green Jetta taxi was just a small part of the huge traffic flow – on the road at the entrance of Dujiangyan, the coming and going lanes were already densely packed with Chengdu taxis. Along with ambulances, all the cars with flashing emergency lights converged into a river, illuminating the dark neighborhoods of Dujiangyan due to power outages and illuminating people’s eyes. An indescribable beauty made Hong Wei’s nose suddenly sour.
"Almost all the taxis running on the road have their emergency lights flashing," said Ge Kuang, a master at Chengdu Volkswagen Taxi.
"So many taxis, all with emergency lights flashing, are going to pick up the wounded for free! I am proud of our’brother ‘in Chengdu," said Sun Jing, a live streaming host on the traffic station, excitedly.
After 11 PM, Lai Wei drove towards Dujiangyan. He suddenly felt calm and no longer flustered.
Lai Wei went to the gas station near the Yangxi interchange to fill up, and there was a long queue at the scene. To his surprise, the traffic police on duty at the scene "seemed to have changed his eyes" and motioned for Lai Wei to add first. On the highway, the scene in front of him made Lai Wei’s blood flow: countless Chengdu taxis flashed their emergency lights, and the ambulances and police cars flashing their emergency lights merged into a flashing river. The 120 ambulances in front of him drove fast, and Lai Wei was anxious. He stepped on the accelerator and ran, "At least the speed is more than 130 kilometers per hour."
In the rolling traffic, after taking the second casualty to the Chengdu Orthopedic Hospital, Lai Wei’s colleague Hong Wei drove to Dujiangyan for the third time. Ge Lin Jianyuan, also a brother of Classic Company and in his 50s, drove the car to the mass rescue station in the disaster area of Dujiangyan Sichuan Agricultural University. There is a temporary emergency transfer point for the buried children of Xinjian Elementary School that night.
A driver of Rongcheng Taxi Company had a stomach cramp when he arrived in Dujiangyan. After timely treatment, he did not rest and continued to run with the convoy. Some brothers sent two pots of rice made by their own homes to the disaster area.
After one o’clock in the morning, a message about "Dujiangyan is short of transportation capacity, and cars are urgently needed to transport the wounded and sick" spread all over Rongcheng through the radio waves of fm91.4, and more taxis gathered in Dujiangyan from all directions in the urban area of Chengdu. Drivers from at least 30 taxi companies, including Rongcheng, Yunzong, Classic, Sino-Japan, Jinyan, Hongchuan, Qiangsheng, and Beite, heard the message from the municipal traffic station and automatically went to Dujiangyan to rescue people.
One by one, one by one… More and more taxis, flashing overhead lights and emergency lights, continue to drive on the Chenggan Expressway, quickly sending lives that need to be saved on this life channel. Some netizens said on the forum: "The flashing lights of Chengdu taxis are like a rainbow."