Wed, May 30, 2012
Shenzhen police will provide detailed evidence Wednesday in a bid to quell public doubts surrounding the identity of a man who turned himself in hours after a fatal car crash caused by drunk driving and speeding.
As the public suspect the man was made to take the fall for someone they claim to be rich and powerful, analysts warned the credibility of Shenzhen authorities might suffer if the case is not dealt with appropriately.
Xu Wei, a deputy director at the Shenzhen traffic police bureau, reaffirmed yesterday that a migrant worker surnamed Hou was in fact the driver of a Nissan GTR sports car involved in the crash Saturday morning, stressing he was not a fall guy trying to take the blame.
Hou, 29, works for a construction firm and borrowed the car from the company head, police said.
The sedan was traveling at a speed of at least 180 kilometers per hour when it slammed into two taxis shortly after 3 am, killing three people in one of the cabs and injuring three female passengers in the sports car driven by Hou, police said. The drunk driver fled the scene, but turned himself in to police seven hours later with minor injuries to his face.
Police said surveillance footage of the crash was not available, but showed video of Hou at a local bar shortly before the crash and the sports car ownerw absent from the scene while his car was driven by Hou.
"I still don't believe Hou was the one who drove the car that day. The real criminal must be someone else," a mother, surnamed Liao, of one of the two taxi passenger victims, Tang Lulu, told the Global Times.
"I saw Hou and his face wasn't severely injured … how could such minor injuries be sustained from the crash?" queried an uncle, surnamed Zhang, of another victim.
A video clip circulated online shows a man, accompanied by three young females, being treated for injuries to his jaw after the crash Saturday morning at a hospital in Shenzhen.
Xu with local police said the individual was another man from Shanghai surnamed Yang, who has nothing to do with the car crash.
Hou's injuries to his head and chest match those that would have been caused in the crash by the blown air bag and safety belt of the sports car, the Shenzhen News quoted Xu as saying.
Relatives of the victims were initially barred from attending yesterday's police press conference, but some managed to enter, the Yangcheng Evening News reported.
