Man on motorbike crashes, lies in road and plays with phone

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.

There are moments when I think I've seen it all.

That's when I slap my face with a wet tea towel, knowing that something I haven't seen is about to enter my firmament.

So it is that I have received wind of a man riding his motorbike last Tuesday in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, China. As recorded by the People's Daily in China, he and his bike were in an accident with a car at an intersection.

What's not clear is what caused the accident. Might the man have been riding his bike while playing with his phone?

I ask this apparently absurd question only because photographs first published on Weibo show the man lying in the street, clutching his phone and seemingly playing a video game.

The Chinese People's Daily reports that he had injuries. It's unclear how serious these might have been, given that he was conscious enough to play on his phone.

The Daily Mail reports that police declared he had subsequently been discharged from hospital. Perhaps he'd even had the chance to charge his phone there.

The Mail also said that skeptics on social media suggested that the man stayed prostrate so that he could extract compensation from the driver. However, if that was the case, surely he might have acted a touch more, well, hurt, than the playing on his phone indicated.

Still, for me this is a first, and one I will remember at least all weekend. Until, that is, the next person-clutching-phone-does-something-very-very-silly comes along.