China: Car racing incident

On 7 of May, around 20:05, a 25 year-old young man Tan Zhuo (譚卓 see thumb nail photo) was hit and killed by a racing car when he was walking in a zebra crossing at Wen E Si road in Han Zhou. According to witnesses, the car was racing with another two cars in extremely high speed and Tan was thrown 5 meters upward before hitting the ground. The driver was an undergraduate student of a local university, Hu Bin, with rich family background. There were no tire-mark in the scene, and Tan's body was landed 20 meters away from the spot he was hit. Below is a T.V report on the incident:

70 km car speed only

Police report on the next day quoted from the driver and his friends’ side of the story and stated that the car speed was only 70 km when Tan was hit. And the police said that they were yet to confirm whether Tan was in the zebra crossing. Even the reporters were outraged by the one-sided story presented by the police and challenged the police during the press conference:

No more reports!

However, local propaganda department has issued notice to all media organization in Han Zhou demanding that there should be no more follow up report on the car racing incident. Meanwhile netizen were outraged by the attitude of Hu and his racing gang. A photo showed that they didn't show any remorse after the accident.

racing-gang

Uptill now there are more than 1.3 million visits to a single Tianya's post with more than 15,000 comments, below is just a selection of some:

Outraged netizens

清风匝地123 2009-05-08 09:07:53

支持人肉,简直无法无天

Support human flesh search engine, there is no law and no justice.

伤心的马甲12 2009-05-08 09:15:04  

  

这个帖子点击快四百了,却没人回复。
  我觉得这种帖子就应该顶起来,制造社会舆论压力。最好能上门户网站,各大报纸,因为不是这件事就算了,杭州这边不管是城西还是滨江,这种人很多。我身边朋友很多都碰到过,不严打,难保又要出人命。

There are about 400 hit for this post, how come not so many comments.
I think this kind of post should be lifted to the top to create social pressure. I wish major portal and newspapers would report on this. We have so many such kind of scums in Han Zhou, many of my friends have witnessed similar incidents. If the government does not strike hard on this, more people lives will be at stake.

稻草玩偶 2009-05-08 09:18:53  

  

只要不是无照驾驶,交通事故中就不会有太大的问题,撞死人比撞伤人省下很多麻烦,甚至赔的钱更少。这帮子富家公子是败类,那些撞来撞去的司机是畜生。

他们这种情况只要不是无照驾驶连刑事责任都不用承担,所以才能笑得出来,不当回事

If the driver has a license, car accident is not a big issue and the compensation for killing someone is less than injuring someone. This gang of rich are human scum, these drivers are beasts.

Driving with a license do not need to take up criminal responsibility, that's why they can laugh like this as if nothing serious has happened.

走过路过人生 2009-05-08 09:21:04  

  

申明我不仇富,但我仇视,毁掉别人生命还如此猖狂的人。说句不好听的,这般小孩就是欠教育,对生命都如此冷漠,以后还能指望他做出什么有意义的事来?他们这行为跟故意杀人罪的社会危害性没区别了。。。

I don't hate the rich, but I hate such kind of attitude after taking away other's life. They lack basic education for being so cold to life. What else can they do in this future? Such kind of behavior is no different with murder…

东元的KK 2009-05-08 09:22:09

还有,去年杭州滨江还发生过更惨烈的悲剧,一对小夫妻,孩子才几个月,吃过晚饭,在江边散步,一个开快车的马六把夫妻俩撞飞,肚肠都出来了,直接死亡。

Last year, a worse tragedy happened. A couple who just had their new born baby was taking a walk near the river, a over speed car killed them both on spot.

wlvlb 2009-05-08 09:27:32  

  

这就是中国了,习惯就好

This is China, get used to it and everything is fine.

空水氤氲 2009-05-08 09:46:01  

  

这种无良祸害
  强烈要求修改中国这方面的法律
  这不就是 杀人吗 他们明明知道市区道路人多
  还开这么快 撞死人是必然的
  虽然撞死谁是偶然的

We should demand the government to change the law. This is murder, they know that there are so many people in the street. With such high speed, it is inevitable that someone would be killed, although who would be the victim is random.

Human flesh search engine

Human flesh search engine decided to do the justice themselves and dig up all the information concerning Hu Bin, including his parent’ identity, his I.D card number, photo, mobile phone number, QQ number and even password (which is his car license number). Moreover, human flesh search engine also found out that the same car had two records in exceeding speed limit and the car's engine has been modified.

As online discussion about the incident has been harmonized (critical and emotional comments were deleted), two websites have been set up to collect information and update about this car racing incident: http://70km.org and http://70yard.com.

Candle night vigil and open letter

Tan's family, friends, fiancee, alumni, teachers and colleagues organized a candle night vigil on the next day and jointly signed an open letter to the city mayor asking for a thorough investigation on the case. Today (May 10), there will be another commemoration gathering at the city mortuary. For those who cannot attend the vigil can sign up here.

Below are photos about the candle night vigil in May 8 (via and 70yard):

qx7

qx6

qx5

4 comments

  • […] There are some translated Tianya BBS comments at Global Voices. […]

  • R. Elgin

    The embedded news video does not play. a blank blue frame comes up with the words “the clip has been blocked in your region”.

    Somehow, I don’t think that the MIC in Korea blocks this kind of thing, though they are often questionable in their judgement.

  • R. Elgin

    P.S. the above video is also blocked if I use a German proxy, so it is definitely not a Korean issue of blocking content.

  • […] GVO, ESWN, and chinaSMACK all translate various Chinese articles and netizen comments concerning the latest internet outrage over a street-racing rich kid hitting a pedestrian in Hangzhou. China’s infamous human flesh search engines uncover a surprising amount of personal information on both the victim and the racer as the public pressures the police and government to ensure that money does not get in the way of the law this time as it so often does. ESWN, in particular, translates a netizen’s defense of Hu Bin, the driver, arguing that the government should go easy on him because rich people contribute more to the nation. 3. In terms of contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of China as well as Hangzhou, the family of Hu Bin is immeasurably more important than the Tan Family.  Wu Bin is the builder, sponsor and economic supporter that Hangzhou needs.  Meanwhile Tan has just joined the workforce and his contribution is small — in fact, he is using more resources from than he is contributing to Hangzhou.  When we deal with the problem, this should be our first consideration. […]

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