The mud truck involved in the accident is about to be towed away. A tipster provided the photo. A couple was riding home for dinner when a speeding mud truck passed by, separating them forever. Eyewitnesses said that at the last moment, the husband gave his wife a chance to survive by turning the handlebars to the left, allowing the wheels to crush him instead while his wife was thrown off the bicycle and survived with only a broken nose.
At around 7 p.m. last night, at the intersection of Bantian Street's Banxuegang and Wuhe Avenue in Longgang District, a sharply turning Jiangxi-licensed mud truck (license plate number: Gan C18549) caused casualties among pedestrians. The right front wheel of the truck ran over a migrant worker couple from Hunan Province who were riding a bicycle. The husband died on the scene while the wife suffered serious injuries.
At the scene of the accident, the mud truck with license plate number Gan C18549 was covered in mud, making the license plate number hard to identify. There was a large pool of blood under the front wheel of the truck, and the deceased had just been taken away by a funeral vehicle. The mud truck occupied more than half of the lane, with a bloody piece of the deceased's clothing still pressed under the wheels. The driver of the mud truck was present cooperating with the investigation and was soon taken to the police station for further questioning.
According to eyewitness Mr. Huang, at the time of the incident, the couple was riding a bicycle quite slowly, laughing and chatting happily, looking very cozy. At the turning point where Wuhe Avenue meets Banxuegang Road, the couple was preparing to cross Banxuegang Avenue when this mud truck suddenly came rushing towards them.
Mr. Huang stated that the mud truck was traveling at an extremely high speed and suddenly changed direction, making a sharp right turn. The couple did not have enough time to react, and the mud truck collided heavily with the bicycle. The man riding the bicycle fell into a pool of blood, his brain matter spilling out, and he died instantly. His wife was thrown several meters away, landing heavily on the ground.
Another eyewitness, Mr. Li, recalled that when the mud truck was about to hit the bicycle, the husband seemed to realize the impending disaster. He abruptly turned the handlebars to the left, allowing the wheels to roll over him instead, throwing his wife off the bicycle and saving her life. Mr. Li believed that the husband must have done this to protect his wife; otherwise, the mud truck would have first run over the wife, potentially sparing the husband's life.
The couple had been in Shenzhen for less than a month.
On-site traffic police introduced that the deceased's surname was Liu, aged 49, and both he and his wife were from Yiyang, Hunan Province, working at a factory in the nearby Zhangkengjing Industrial Zone.
Family members present were grief-stricken. According to them, this couple had only come to Shenzhen in October. They had long worked in their hometown but due to poverty, they followed relatives and fellow townspeople to Shenzhen to make money. In order to earn as much overtime pay as possible, they worked overtime every day, willingly taking on extra shifts. Their living conditions were the worst, and they saved wherever they could. It was unimaginable that less than a month after entering the factory, such a tragedy would befall them.
At around 9 p.m. last night, emergency doctors from Bantian Hospital told Southern Metropolis Daily reporters that the woman had suffered severe head injuries but her condition was temporarily stable, with no immediate danger to her life. During the rescue, the woman was emotionally agitated, crying uncontrollably while receiving intravenous fluids.
The woman requested that the doctor save her husband first.
Nurses said that when the ambulance arrived at the scene, the woman was still relatively conscious on the side of the road. She asked the doctor to prioritize rescuing her husband. The doctor had to tell her that her husband had already passed away and that the funeral vehicle was on its way, causing the woman to faint on the spot.
The injured woman was emotionally agitated. Based on her intermittent moans, she described how the mud truck was traveling too fast, leaving her and her husband no time to react before being hit hard. Her husband protected her by using his body to block the front wheel of the mud truck.
Last night, Southern Metropolis Daily reporters revisited the scene of the accident and found that there were no traffic lights or other facilities at this T-junction. A mud truck passed by every two minutes. The mud trucks were traveling at high speeds, almost all overloaded and speeding. Pedestrians and vehicles were mixing chaotically at the intersection.
Traffic police on duty at the scene said that although the traffic department had increased manpower to rectify the behavior of mud trucks, due to the many construction sites outside the city gates, the number of mud trucks had grown exponentially, making the police force seem severely insufficient. Southern Metropolis Daily reporters Cheng Xi and Chen Wencai contributed to this report.