Suspect was behind the wheel: police

Updated: 2012-05-30 07:50

By Huang Yuli in Shenzhen and Tong Hao in Beijing (China Daily)

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Shenzhen police showed videos and pictures on Tuesday in an attempt to convince a cynical public and victims' families that the person who turned himself in hours after a deadly accident was not a fall guy willing to take the blame.

The accident happened at 3:08 am on May 26 when a GTR sports car driving at least 180 km/h hit two taxis, one of which caught fire, killing the driver and two young women in the taxi.

Suspect was behind the wheel: police

Police check the scene of a fatal traffic accident on Binhai Avenue, in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, involving a sports car and two taxis. Three people were killed when a drunken driver drove the sports car into the taxis on Saturday. Xuan Hui / for China Daily

The driver ran from the scene and gave himself up seven hours after the accident, according to the Shenzhen traffic police bureau.

Police tested his breath and confirmed he was drunken driving.

The owner of the sports car is surnamed Xu, a project manager of a Shenzhen construction company, while the driver was surnamed Hou, an employee at the construction company, the Yangcheng Evening News cited Xu Wei, deputy director of Shenzhen traffic police bureau, as saying.

Because Hou had won Xu's trust, Hou was allowed to drive the car at will.

Xu Wei added that 29-year-old Hou was from the countryside of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, with no powerful family background.

Some people questioned whether the man who surrendered was the driver because he had no injuries to his jaw, while family members of a victim and a doctor at a hospital believed the driver had stitches in his jaw, according to Monday's Southern Metropolis Daily.

To dismiss suspicions of the public and victims' families, the Shenzhen traffic police bureau provided evidence including videos and pictures at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

One video clip shows a man wearing a shirt and a pair of flip-flops, who the police said was Hou, walking out of a bar. The police said that they also found a pair of flip-flops in the driver's seat of the sports car.

Police also provided video clips showing Hou driving the car away with three young women at about 2:50 am on May 26, while another video shows Xu did not walk out of his home until 4:23 am.

In addition, the police disclosed pictures of the car owner Xu, said to be taken on Tuesday, showing no injuries to his face or body.

But the public remained suspicious as police failed to provide video showing the accident and how the driver got out of the sports car.

Police also failed to provide a comparison between Hou's fingerprint and the fingerprint collected from the car.

The Shenzhen traffic police bureau said another news conference will be held on Wednesday to disclose information such as the comparison between Hou's DNA and the DNA collected from the car.

The Shenzhen police bureau uploaded the accident report and link of the videos on its micro blog on Monday. By Tuesday afternoon there were more than 16,000 comments, most questioning how the crucial video was missing.

Contact the writers at huangyuli@chinadaily.com.cn and tonghao@chinadaily.com.cn

Chen Hong contributed to this story.