Viral TikTok shows the harrowing moment a Chinese bus driver saves a suicidal mother and her son

November 2, 2021

A passing bus driver in China was caught on video saving a woman attempting to commit suicide with her son.

The suicide attempt: In a recent viral TikTok, a passing bus driver can be seen stopping a mother with her young son from jumping off a bridge in Guangzhou, China, reported Newsweek.

The TikTok features footage of a mother and her son walking on the side of the non-pedestrian Pearl River Bridge. The bus’s security camera then catches the doors of the bus opening while the mother tries to carry her young son over the bridge. The next camera shows bus driver Zhang Zhide quickly removing his seatbelt.
The video, timestamped at 5:16 p.m. on Oct. 21, shows Zhang then running after the woman who had already placed her right leg over the ledge. But as seen on the video, the driver is able to hold her and pull her back onto the roadside.
According to local reports, they were taken to the police station wherein the son was picked up by a relative.
“When I think of it now, I’m quite scared because the guardrail is very short. If I arrive later or if I don’t have enough strength, the consequences would be unimaginable,” Zhang stated.
The video posted by @caroelynne on Oct. 27 has now received over 4.5 million views.

Mental illness is widely stigmatized in China. One 2019 study reported a shortage of at least 400,000 mental health workers in the country, and another study from the same year reported that a vast majority of 220 million Chinese citizens, or around 16% of the nation’s total population, who had experienced a psychiatric disorder never received treatment.

Featured Image via @caroelynne

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