Video of dying boy renews anger over public apathy

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A VIDEO showing a mother in tears as her little boy lay crushed under a minibus has sparked renewed anger over the apathy of onlookers in China.

The video recalls bitter memories of a similar tragedy a year ago.

The latest recording was posted by Wang Yujing on his Weibo account on Monday. It shows that a number of people witnessed the accident and several cars were passing by at the time, but no one offered to help the mother.

"Eventually, the boy died because of serious injuries," Wang wrote.

The video was forwarded more than 22,000 times in just a few hours.

Police said the boy, Yan Zhe, was just five.

Yan had gone to the food market in Tongxiang City in east China's Zhejiang Province with his mother and was playing on the street when the accident happened.

The boy's father, Yan Mingjing, and his mother are natives of southwest China's Guizhou Province and had been working in Tongxiang for several years. Yan Zhe was their only child.

In a similar case, two-year-old Wang Yue was hit by two vehicles and ignored by passers-by in October 2011 in Foshan, Guangdong Province. She died in hospital.

A surveillance video showed Wang being hit by the vehicles and left to bleed on the street.

Eighteen pedestrians and cyclists walked by the toddler before a migrant woman collecting trash pulled her to the side of the street and alerted the girl's mother.

Compensation agreed

The traffic department of Tongxiang City confirmed that the video posted by Wang was genuine.

They said the minibus driver did not escape and passers-by called the police and an ambulance.

The driver, surnamed Gao, and Yan's parents had agreed on compensation, according to Wei Linji, a traffic police officer.

Yan's family received 710,000 yuan (US$113,600) from Gao, and the family told the public security department, procuratorial authorities and the local court they would not pursue criminal charges against Gao.

The driver said he met an acquaintance in the market and chatted for a while but did not notice the boy when he started his vehicle. He felt he hit something and got out to check, only to find the boy lying under the right wheel, bleeding.

"I was stunned at the time and thought nothing, I quivered all over," Gao said.

Commenting on the video, Internet user "Shenmomo" wrote: "It's furious, shameful to see such a tragedy repeated in the cold winter. You were born in such a cold world, may angels and heaven warm you."

A shopkeeper at the market said: "We all feel sorry for the death of the boy, and we have heard the criticism from the public, but we didn't know how to rescue him."

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