Driver ignores dying hit-and-run victim – later finds out it is his mother

A man who drove past a fatally injured woman on the side of the road in China found out later that she was his mother.

The man, surnamed Zhang from Nanling county in the eastern province of Anhui, was driving to meet his mother when he passed a bloodied elderly woman lying in the road. After arriving at his mother’s house and realizing she was out, he rushed back to the scene, only to discover the terrible truth.

Mr Zhang called an ambulance but his mother died from her injuries on the way to the hospital.
Police later found a driver who admitted to the hit-and-run.

“My car does not have a dashboard recorder, so I didn’t stop,” Mr Zhang said, according to Anhui Business Daily.

Drivers or passersby in China are hesitant about helping strangers in need. In recent years there have been reports of money being extorted from the “good Samaritans” by the very people they try to assist.

With limited government health insurance, those unfortunate enough to get into accidents can face medical bills beyond their means. Last year, a man Wu Weiqing killed himself after the family of an injured elderly man he stopped to help accused him of knocking down the pensioner and demanded Mr Wu foot the bill.

There was another gruelling and now infamous case in 2011 in which 18 people passed a little child Wang Yue as she lay in the street after being hit by a car. Although someone eventually stopped to help, the two-year-old girl died of her injuries.