China: Wang Yinpeng, Runan County Police Head, Accused Of Drunk Driving, Killing 5

BEIJING -- A police officer was suspected of driving a police van drunk and killing five people in a central China crash that sparked angry crowds to smash and flip police cars in the latest burst of public anger against the authorities.

Wang Yinpeng, the head of a township police station in Henan province's Runan county, was charged with endangering public security after the van crashed into two street lamp poles Saturday afternoon, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The poles fell, fatally crushing five victims and injuring three more.

The Runan county Propaganda Department said the officer was suspected of driving drunk, Xinhua reported.

Crowds surrounded the crashed van as well as two other police cars and two vans, and overturned and smashed them out of unhappiness with how the police were handling the crash, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

The paper cited a witness as saying police arrived at the scene and apparently tried to move the bodies to a funeral parlor without first conducting an investigation.

The newspaper said that according to a family member, the victims were mostly farmers who were waiting for long-distance buses to take them to Zhejiang to find work.

Photos said to be taken at the scene were circulating on China's popular Sina Weibo, showing bodies lying face down on the road and overturned police cars with smashed windows, as well as large crowds.

Xinhua said the county police department has set up a special investigation team.

Reports of road rage and drunken driving have increased in Chinese media as auto sales have boomed and new drivers hit the streets with little training.

China has also seen more frequent protests, sometimes violent, that are sparked by one-off incidents that point to a deep-seated unhappiness with abuses of power and officials who see themselves as above the law.

Generally apolitical, the incidents spark a deep unease among authorities who worry they may spill out of control and go from attacks on local issues to challenges to the ruling Communist Party.

(This version CORRECTS name of department to propaganda, not publicity.)

Comments

[zbb]

11:42 AM on 10/31/2011

I like the way the journalist states "Generally apolitical" before his political perspectives.

[cwbates]

04:34 AM on 10/31/2011

I lived in china in the early 2000s and was taken out drinking one night by a couple of very funny chinese cops. They took me to a karaoke hotel, and paid for a female escort to sit on my lap and feed me watermelon all night. I was encouraged by the cops to "touch their milkies" and I declined their offer to pay for the opportunity to take the lady to a private room. After we had been drinking for a couple hours (we were all very very drunk), I was surprised when they opted to drive me home themselves in their police van. I was like, umm, should you be driving? But he just went ahead and drove.

[OldSurrender]

11:28 PM on 10/30/2011

I wonder if Wang has a "我爸是李刚!"-style card he can play to avoid harshest penalties.

For those unfamiliar with 我爸是李刚!: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/my-dad-is-li-gang-%E6%88%91%E7%88%B8%E6%98%AF%E6%9D%8E%E5%88%9A#.Tq4TR0PiGnU

I'm surprised this hasn't happened already. The roads in Henan are already crowded death traps as they are. Semis, overcrowded buses, donkey carts, sedans of the newly rich and cabs drive as orderly as roller-derby players skate (no offense to roller-derby players). During the fall it gets worse as the farmers husk piles of corn in the streets blocked traffic and then burn straw nixing visibility. Add a drunken driver into that mix you get what you see above.

[Blodo]

08:43 PM on 10/30/2011

The communist party has succeeded in bringing in policies that enable people to meet their basic physiological needs. Now, as might be expected, the people are turning their sights elsewhere in an effort to improve their lives and are making demands that include basic justice and accountability of officials.

[Christine Morrell]

08:12 PM on 10/30/2011

This is a terrible tragedy and all you people can say is how the laws and punishments are lacking in some way. There are no more "if's" for those 5 farmers.

[edgarcaycedoc]

07:32 PM on 10/30/2011

In China this particular DUI will probably bring the death penalty. And in America we think it is excessive interference by the courts if we don't offer plea bargans for the first three.

[factsaboutchina]

09:35 PM on 10/30/2011

The only reason it may bring the death penalty is because it has made some headlines and riled up the plebes. Police officers rarely face the death penalty for such minor offenses as killing peasants, unless it makes the papers.

[Petunia Fields]

06:40 PM on 10/30/2011

Did you know that China has an actual official recreational drug! I cant remember the brand but its a type of alcohol and I believe its produced by the Chinese government. Anyone else that buys drugs from another source, even soft drugs, is of course sentenced to death. Over here we just destory peoples families are spend a million dollars of taxpayer money to lock them up in a private prison for 40 years.

[Petunia Fields]

06:37 PM on 10/30/2011

Throw the book at him! Increase his sentence from 6 weeks of paid suspension/vacation to 8 weeks of paid suspension/vacation!

That will set an example of what the rest of them can expect if they decide to cross the imaginary line!.

[jteschke]

05:57 PM on 10/30/2011

In this particular instance, the stereotype of subservient Chinese does not apply. The question is whether a stereotype of subservience has become applicable to places closer to home.

[Buakaw Por Pramuk]

05:17 PM on 10/30/2011

I knew that couldn't be here in America when I read that.

[Loyal Whig]

04:43 PM on 10/30/2011

I'm sure some lunatic on HP is going to twist this crash into Bush's fault.

[youknowwhat]

05:53 PM on 10/30/2011

While it is very apparent that you really care for Bush. How in the world did you jump to that conclusion? Did you read the article?

[AlohaMark2]

06:32 PM on 10/30/2011

No, Laura Bush is the one that killed a man with her car.

[jeffp26]

04:27 PM on 10/30/2011

In China this guy will be tried and executed. Here his case would be swept under the rug and he'd keep his oversized pension.

[factsaboutchina]

09:38 PM on 10/30/2011

Wrong. You clearly haven't been to China and know little about it. What is even more stunning is your total lack of understanding of the US. A) The officer will pay a large sum of money to each family (money solves all in China), B) the officer is executed (but only because the story made the newspaper).

[jeffp26]

10:09 PM on 10/30/2011

You are the one who is clueless my friend. Your understanding of China is nonsense, and I live in NYC so I've seen hundreds of drunken cops and firemen mow down innocents during my life, and not a single one of those stumble-bum criminals has ever lost his job, or pension, never mind done time.

[LiamMc]

03:28 PM on 10/30/2011

"The more people you kill, the more revolutionary you are." (Mao)

[Fattonecat]

02:15 PM on 10/30/2011

China cops taking their cue from the NYPD.

[alfredjsenior]

01:58 PM on 10/30/2011

Wow! Another day in Socialist heaven where "the little people" are taken care of within an all knowing, all seeing, all caring, completely "fair" totalitarian system. Well at least the victims have world class "free" medical care. Wonder if those angry rural farmers feel their lives are equal to all those living in the free enterprise zones within the larger Chinese cities? Chuckle! So much for a completely equal distribution of wealth and power within another perfect Marxist system. Mabye the Chinese could take some lessons from their even more ideologically pure, and deeply commited North Korean neighbors.