CHINA WAS still reeling from the national outpouring of grief over the brutal killing by indifference of a two-year-old toddler in the south when another story of the horrific death of a child emerged from Sichuan province.
A cement truck had struck five- year-old Xiong Maoke, who attended the local kindergarten in Yunfeng in Luxian county, and the driver reportedly reversed over the body to kill the child, because compensation for a dead child is less than that for an injured one. The hospital bills are a lot less.
“How much shall I pay?” was the driver’s reported first comment.
Local officials now insist the story is not accurate. “An investigation found no evidence that the boy had been run over twice,” Li Zekun, head of the Luxian county traffic police team, told a news conference, in remarks carried by the China Daily newspaper.
But the case shows just how heightened emotions have become in China over apparent public indifference to the plight of children in jeopardy since the death of little Yueyue earlier this month.
In the case of Maoke, villagers claimed that the truck hit him, knocking him down, rolled backwards, then moved forward with the boy trapped under the wheels.
Miaoke died immediately, but his body was not removed from under the truck for seven hours because villagers wanted speedy compensation.
The driver, Ao Yong, applied the emergency brake and the truck produced a long drag mark before it stopped, Mr Li told reporters.
After Yueyue’s death, a similar story emerged of a driver calling local media and saying he drove over the infant a second time because it would be less expensive. The caller was identified as a hoaxer.
