Chart / Yang Cheng. The scene of the collision was in disarray. Readers provided photos. A small car rampaged through a night snack stall, hitting 11 people before speeding away.
14 hours later, the hit-and-run driver turned himself in, claiming he went home to get money.
Journalist Weiwei Wang, Interns Liang Ying and Long Chen reported on this story.
On a rainy night, by the roadside, at a night snack stall, a chain collision accident occurred, followed by a hit-and-run.
It seemed like a scene from a Hong Kong triad movie, but it happened on the night of February 14th on Du Ying Road in West Changsha. This chain collision traffic accident resulted in 11 people being injured. Although the victims were not seriously hurt, they were furious due to the fleeing driver. 14 hours later, the driver surrendered, and the police preliminarily classified the incident as a "traffic accident escape."
The small car hit a utility pole, then reversed and charged again.
At 11 PM on the 14th, Li Dan and her husband Chu Yao Yan walked into a spicy hot pot stall by Du Ying Road. The owner, Guo Chun Hua, greeted customers while preparing soup, and his wife, Wang Feng Xian, was busy preparing dishes.
Including Li Dan and her two companions, eight diners sat around a small square table. Li Dan and Chu Yao Yan chose seats facing the tent entrance.
Suddenly, "bang"! The tent swayed, and the signboard scattered as a red car quickly rushed towards the adjacent fried rice stall.
Chu Yao Yan's first reaction was to grab Li Dan's hand and run out. It was too late! The tent collapsed, and the diners who were hit cried out in pain. A woman shouted, "I've been hit!"
"Bang," another sound, Li Dan heard the car collide with something and then stop. Before everyone could sigh, the engine sound started again. Oh no, the car was reversing, then speeding forward again.
A brave young man trying to help was thrown several meters away.
In an instant, a girl fell in the middle of the road. Then, a man running towards the girl was hit by the car and thrown several meters, falling in front of the "Welcome Wholesale Department" store.
The man's name was Zhang Feng. He told reporters that he saw the girl lying in the middle of the road. Seeing the tendency of the red car to flee the scene, he immediately ran to the middle of the road, only to be heavily hit.
After Zhang Feng fell, the car still did not stop but directly collided with the rear of a taxi parked by the roadside. The taxi spun 90 degrees, and the car's hood pressed on the right leg of another stall owner, Zhou Hong Hua.
A passerby bravely blocked the car in front. However, the car driver sharply turned the steering wheel and sped northward.
Soon, the ambulance arrived at the scene, and eight injured people were sent to the hospital for treatment. The other three with minor injuries dealt with themselves.
Next page: 14 hours later, the perpetrator appeared.
14 hours later, the perpetrator appeared.
At 2 PM on the 15th, a man wearing a blue cotton-padded jacket walked into the office of the traffic police detachment of Yuelu District's 122 Accident Handling Team.
"I am the hit-and-run driver from last night." As soon as these words were spoken, the injured people who had waited for half a day surrounded him. "Do you know you hit someone?" "Did you drink alcohol?" "Do you even have a driver's license?"
Faced with many emotionally agitated victims, the man softly pleaded for mercy: "I'm afraid they will beat me because of their emotions. I really feel very sorry about last night's incident, but I really didn't drink."
Police officer Huang Xue Nong placed the man in a seat and asked him to provide his driver's license. The license showed that the man's name was Peng Bo, 28 years old, from Liuyang.
Preliminary classification as a traffic accident escape.
"Why didn't you get out of the car to check after realizing you had hit someone, instead choosing to drive away?" Faced with doubts, Peng Bo lowered his head and said, "I didn't have much money on me at the time. After realizing I had injured someone, I immediately drove back home to get money."
"Why didn't you return to the scene immediately after getting the money?" Peng Bo's head drooped even lower, and he remained silent.
The victims continued to ask, "Where is the car that hit people now?" Peng Bo replied, "I abandoned it last night, leaving it by the roadside near the west bus station."
"You just said you drove home to get money. How come you say you abandoned the car by the roadside?"
Peng Bo changed his tone: "I've only had my driver's license for half a year, and it was raining heavily that night, making the road unclear. That's why this accident happened."
Police officer Huang Xue Nong said that after hitting people, Peng Bo did not get out of the car to check but fled the scene in the car, which can be preliminarily classified as a traffic accident escape. "We contacted the car owner according to the license plate number 'Xiang A6400A' provided by eyewitnesses at the scene. After much persuasion, he came to surrender."
■ Journalist Weiwei Wang, Interns Liang Ying and Long Chen
Black past
Hidden dangers in Changsha's roadside night snack stalls.
At 9 PM on August 18, 2009, over a stool, Xiao Zhi, Zhou Yang, and 11 other teenagers brutally beat the night snack stall owner Deng Xian to death with wooden sticks.
Late on August 29, 2010, suspecting the other party of framing him, Li Jun, who had just been released from labor re-education, smashed beer bottles at Xiao Wu at a night snack stall, causing Xiao Wu's death.
At 9 PM on September 13, 2010, an elderly scavenger was run over and killed by a hit-and-run car outside a night snack stall on Huangxing Avenue in Changsha County.
On the evening of March 22, 2011, a hit-and-run accident occurred on Du Ying Road in West Changsha. A black car injured pedestrians without stopping, driving about a hundred meters before colliding with a night snack stall, injuring the stall owner.
Dangerous areas
When searching for "Changsha" and "night snack stalls" on Baidu, all the tragedies listed above occurred beside night snack stalls late at night. The reporter investigated several concentrated night snack stall locations in Changsha where there are lively crowds, good taste, and a sense of city life, but safety hazards should not be underestimated.
Du Ying Road: A four-lane road, once night falls, each of the four directions intersecting with Xian Jia Hu West Road has a large number of night snack stalls, exceeding 100 in number. The crossroads often experience lane encroachments, greatly affecting the visibility of passing drivers.
North Zheng Street Second Road: Small cars traveling through North Zheng Street frequently scrape against diners, leading to arguments.
Hua Xia Road: A six-lane road, although spacious, the south-to-north lanes are often occupied by night snack stalls. Many stall owners reflect that because the lanes are wide, vehicles often travel too fast, "There have been several times when cars have crashed into barbecue stalls."