A frightening moment was caught on tape yesterday in Shenzhen, China. A 4-year old girl was hit, killed and smashed by a heavy dirt truck when she was crossing street after breakfast. At the moment then the disaster happened, girl’s mother who was only 3 meters away passed out immediately.
After the accident, truck driver, a young man in his 20’s, intended to flee the site but was captured by law enforcement just minutes later. The truck, which was severely overloaded and pacing at a recklessly high speed, had a hard time to react to braking.
China has a rapidly expanding construction industry. A huge number of construction vehicles are running on the streets and highways days and nights.
Overloading trucks has been a serious problem on the roads in China for quite some time. Some truckers load as much as three times of legal limits for maximun profits. This certainly buries huge bombs in China’s transportation system. Although government weighs trucks at every toll booth on highway and imposes serious penalties on those violated in some cases, most truckers know how to get around it. Some take detours; others bribe weight masters or traffic cops.
A wonderful young life is taken way under the wheel of a overloaded truck. The future of a happy family is significantly ruined. I am saddened by this. I am angry at this. Similar accidents happen in China frequently. Truck drivers surely will pay great prices for what they have done. How about weight masters and traffic cops?
This is not a simple traffic accident. It is a serious social and legal problem in China.