A 24-year-old car driver allegedly killed a 78-year-old man by first crashing into his scooter and racing away, then returning to the scene of the accident and running over the injured man again.
The incident happened early on Friday morning in Caotun Township (草屯), Nantou County.
According to police investigations, Hung Jung-hsiang (洪榮祥) was driving under the influence of alcohol when he crashed into Liao Chin-chuan’s (廖金川) scooter from behind on a road in Caotun. Liao was knocked off the scooter and the driver drove away without stopping.
Three young men in a car later drove by, and stopped to help the injured Liao. They set up obstacles in the road around Liao to prevent other cars from hitting him. Not long after, a nurse, Lu Wan-chen (呂婉禎), who at the time was going home by scooter, also stopped to help Liao, police records showed.
However, while the four were attending to Liao, they saw a car approaching. It ran directly over the obstacles in the road and crushed Liao’s legs and head, killing him on the spot.
Shocked, Lu and the three young men took down the car’s license plate number and called the police immediately.
The police soon found Hung and arrested him at his residence.
When officers brought Hung back to the police station, the three young men, livid over what had happened, shouted at him: “Would you do the same if it were [a member of] your family lying in the road?”
Lu said she cannot understand why the driver was so cruel, adding that she had not been able to sleep since, because she failed to save Liao’s life.
Hung was allegedly still drunk when the police found him. He allegedly told the police that at the time of the first accident he noticed he might have hit something, but did not realize it was a person.
He then returned to check what had happened and ran over Liao by accident, he reportedly said.
Later, when he was sober, Hung allegedly said he felt terrible about hitting the person, but — according to the police — he was murmuring: “It could not be sorted out,” if he did not hit Liao the second time.
Hung was detained and could face murder charges, police said. If convicted, he could face prison time of more than 10 years, life in prison or the death penalty.
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