Posted on Saturday May 9th by The Infrastructurist | 1,142
A photographer in the Chinese city of Xiamen decided to stake out a submerged pothole and wait for an unlucky cyclist to come along and take a tumble. The gentleman pictured above did just that. These three (two after the jump) striking shots were published in Beijing Youth Journal. Naturally, they generated much public outrage.
The photographer argues (strangely) that the exercise was defensible because the pothole got fixed: “Without my pictures, the pit would not be noticed by the government, and there would perhaps be more people falling over.”
Takeaway? Don’t ride through puddles.
Click through for two more pics.
[Story and photos via Ananova]
May 9th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Now that’s just mean.
May 9th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
That photographer would have a good job here in Minneapolis…
May 15th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
While not warning the cyclist is a bit callous, the shots are pretty compelling. Come on, you have to agree–how many times do you catch that on film?
May 15th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
i saw these a couple years ago, actually, so it’s interesting they were published recently and have started a brand new controversy.
additionally, it is a good idea to forgo the umbrella while riding a bike — perhaps he could have held on a bit better with hands, or at least prevented a painful looking faceplant.
May 15th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
doug,
right you are. they are old. weird.
jebediah
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I saw something similar happen in a grocery store parking lot in New Jersey. It was raining so hard that there were inches of water in the parking lot and a man coming out of the store pushing his cart got up a head of steam and stood on the back axle of his shopping cart to ride through the deep water. He either hit a deep hole or his wheel fell into the drain grate. What ensued was a face plant and spilled milk.