The Nanjing Dialect in a Moment of Crisis: Chinese Passengers Help Stop an Airport Bus in South Korea
On July 11, passengers aboard a Route 6015 airport bus traveling from central Seoul toward Incheon International Airport faced a sudden emergency when the driver lost consciousness and the vehicle began to veer out of control. Chinese passengers moved to the front of the bus, steadied the steering wheel, found the emergency brake, called for help, and administered first aid. Two of the three women who first intervened were from Nanjing. (Yangtse Evening News / Ziniu News; The Beijing News)
A bus suddenly out of control
According to interviews published by Yangtse Evening News and The Beijing News, the airport bus was approaching Incheon Airport when the driver became unresponsive. Passengers recalled hearing or feeling the vehicle strike the roadside before someone near the front shouted that the driver had fainted. Reports differ on the exact number of passengers, but they consistently describe a bus carrying travelers from several countries and moving fast enough that those aboard feared a collision or rollover. (Yangtse Evening News / Ziniu News; The Beijing News)
Three Chinese women, identified by the reports only through pseudonyms, converged on the driver’s position. Ms. Sun took hold of the steering wheel. Her companion, Ms. Du, supported the unconscious driver so that he would not fall farther from his seat. Ms. Li reached the control area as Ms. Sun called for her to find a way to brake. Working together, they guided the bus toward the right side of the road and activated the emergency brake. Yangtse Evening News reported that, because the controls were labeled in Korean, the passengers also used a phone translation tool to identify functions including the brake and hazard lights. (Yangtse Evening News / Ziniu News)
The Nanjing dialect in the middle of the emergency
Two of the three women were from Nanjing. The detail that makes the city’s presence especially immediate, however, is not only where they came from but what was heard inside the bus after it stopped.
Yangtse Evening News reported that Ms. Sun rarely spoke the Nanjing dialect in everyday life, but in the urgency of the moment she instinctively called out in her native dialect. In a video she provided to the newspaper, she could be heard repeatedly confirming that the bus had been secured—“刹稳了” and “刹住了”—before asking, “谁会急救?” (“Who knows first aid?”). (Yangtse Evening News / Ziniu News)
Those few words in the Nanjing dialect (南京话) were practical instructions, not a performance of local identity. Yet they also carried a recognizable voice from home into an emergency far from Nanjing: first making sure the danger from the moving bus had passed, then immediately turning attention to the driver.
Passengers organize first aid
After the bus came to a stop, passengers moved the driver into the aisle and took turns performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Ms. Sun told Yangtse Evening News that she had previously learned first aid but had never before used it in a real emergency. Other passengers called South Korean emergency services, opened a door, and tried to attract assistance from passing vehicles. A passenger who spoke Korean helped communicate the location and the driver’s condition. Police and emergency personnel later arrived and took over. (Yangtse Evening News / Ziniu News; The Beijing News; The Paper)
The rescue was collective. Different passengers controlled the wheel, found the brake, supported the driver, called for help, translated information, opened the bus, and continued CPR. The participation of two Nanjing women gives the incident a direct connection to the city, while the Nanjing dialect captured in the emergency recording preserves a small but vivid part of how that response unfolded.
As of this draft, ANJSO has not found a reliable public update independently confirming the driver’s subsequent condition. Ms. Sun told Yangtse Evening News that she remained concerned for him and hoped he would recover. ANJSO is therefore making no assumption about the outcome of his treatment. (Yangtse Evening News / Ziniu News)
Sources
- Yangtse Evening News / Ziniu News: “韩国大巴司机开车时晕倒，三名中国女子合力救下一车人，其中两人来自南京”
- The Beijing News report
- The Paper report
- China Jiangsu Net article shared with ANJSO
Sources
License: © American Nanjing Society