Anger over crash driver's behavior

A video about a rear-end collision in which two people died has triggered heated discussion about whether it is best to try to attempt a rescue or call the police first.

The video, posted on the CCTV website, shows a white car crashed into the back of a forklift truck on Tuesday before dawn on Beijing’s South Fourth Ring Road. Smoke billows from the front of the car where the driver and passenger are trapped. The truck driver paces up and down beside the car, talking on his phone. A passerby can be heard asking him to stop talking and move the truck forward as the car is about to explode. The passerby is then heard to say: “He is still calling the police rather than trying to save the trapped people in the car!” 

Soon after, flames engulf the car. The truck driver can be heard saying: “I have moved the vehicle a bit” and the passerby saying: “Quick, quick, get a fire extinguisher and douse the fire!” By the time some people had tried using extinguishers the fire was out of control. The passerby is heard to sigh: “Can’t be saved … they are already dead.”

After the video which was taken by a passerby was published online, it soon drew many questions about the accident and the driver’s behavior.

One said: “Why didn’t the driver go up to check the people trapped in the car but kept calling? Refusing to help someone dying is a murder!"

Another commented: “The driver must be thinking he was rear-ended by the car, the car should take the full responsibility so his priority is to protect the accident scene intact and wait for the traffic police to come.” 

One person asked: “Can a forklift run on ring roads? If a vehicle does not even have a rear light, how can it be avoid being hit?” There were also questions about why the person who filmed the accident didn’t lend a hand.

Later, in another video posted online, the man who filmed the accident said he had not just stood by to make the video. There were railings between him and the scene which he couldn’t get over. 

Beijing traffic police issued a statement on Thursday night: “About at 3:30am, a 22-year-old man identified as Qi was driving a forklift which is prohibited from running on urban roads and also unlicensed on South Fourth Ring Road while a white car was coming from behind. The car’s front collided with the rear of the forklift. Later, the car burst into flames and two female passengers inside were killed. Both vehicles were damaged. Qi has been detained on suspicion of negligence causing death. The case is still under investigation.”

China’s road safety law requires drivers to rescue anyone injured in an accident and report it to the traffic police or relevant police departments. Drivers should also specify if the accident site had been disturbed due to rescue efforts. Passengers involved in accidents, drivers of passing vehicles, and passing pedestrians shall offer help, the law states.

Yue Shenshan, a lawyer at Beijing Yue Cheng Law Firm, said a charge of negligence causing death carries a maximum sentence of seven years. 

He said the police suspected the driver of negligence causing death because he hadn't expected people inside the car to be burned to death, or that by calling police he had taken measures to try to avoid a tragedy.