Chinese dad whose daughter died in crash visits junction daily to catch traffic violators

A grieving father in southeastern China became a citizen watchdog after a collision killed his nine-year-old daughter.

On August 1, Wu Zhisheng’s wife was riding an electric bike with their two young daughters through an intersection in Jiangxi province when a turning tipper truck struck them.

Their elder daughter, Zijin, died at the scene, while her mother and five-year-old sister were injured.

When Wu rushed to the scene, he found the driver standing beside the vehicle in flip-flops. Nearby, his wife was sobbing in agony as his younger daughter desperately called for her sister.

Police later determined that the truck was 92 per cent overloaded and had faulty brakes. They found the driver, surnamed Zhu, fully at fault.

Frustrated by authorities’ decision not to pursue charges against the trucking company or construction contractor, citing a lack of criminal evidence, Wu put his business on hold to monitor dangerous heavy vehicles full-time.

Day after day, he stakes out congested intersections near schools and playgrounds, following dump trucks, cement mixers and cargo haulers.

So far, Wu has recorded more than 20 heavy vehicles committing infractions – including driving against traffic, running red lights, overloading, obscuring licence plates and hauling cargo illegally – and has submitted the footage to traffic police and posted it online.

Although mainland media have called him a “public-interest whistle-blower,” Wu says he is simply an ordinary citizen urging the public and officials to wake up to the danger.

“If the driver had strictly followed the rule of coming to a complete stop before turning right,” he told the media, “my child would still be alive.”

Heavy trucks are involved in 32 per cent of fatal and injury-causing road accidents in China, according to the China Justice Big Data Institute. Overloading, speeding and driver fatigue are cited as the leading factors.

Wu calculated that the dump truck was 92 per cent over its capacity, carrying a load roughly 2,000 times the weight of his elder daughter.

In previous years, Zijin sent him digital cards on Father’s Day, praising him as an extraordinary father and the family’s pillar of strength, he recalled.

At the trial on November 2, Zhu pleaded not guilty and showed no remorse, claiming that Wu’s wife had driven into him.

Wu said he would file civil suits against Zhu, the vehicle’s insurer, the construction contractor and the transport firm, seeking compensation.

The incident prompted an outpouring of sympathy on mainland social media.

“Zijin’s name was drawn from the Classic of Poetry – you can tell immediately how cherished she was,” one user commented.

“I hope the family can eventually emerge from this grief, cherish their surviving daughter and find the strength to carry on,” another wrote.