Drivers fight over parking space, one dead

An argument over a parking space earlier this week in the Chengdu suburb of Xindu ended with one dead.

The incident occured Tuesday afternoon outside a kindergarten in the Xindu District 's Banzhu Garden.

While waiting for school to let out, the driver of a new-model black SUV faced off with a van. Neither party was willing to yield, so the driver of the van eventually got out of the vehicle to talk to the other driver.

According to eyewitnesses, a physical fight broke out, and then, a short time later, the driver of the SUV drove into the other driver, knocking him down and killing him immediately.

The neighborhood is shaken up as a result of the incident.

"When it happened, my legs went totally soft," said a woman surnamed Zhang who had been playing majiang near the scene of the crime when it happened. She said that around 5 p.m. she heard an argument break out and went over to see what was going on. She saw that the SUV was parked in the way of the silver van. The van driver called out, "Let me through." After arguing outside of the vehicles for some time, two men stepped out of the SUV clutching small hammers of about 10 cm in length, clearly intending to threaten the driver of the van. By then the van driver looked pale and suddenly fell to the ground. The men from the SUV turned to get back into their vehicle, and, at that moment, the van driver stood up and ran after them. The driver of the SUV stepped on the gas, with his vehicle aimed directly at the van driver.

According to witnesses, the van driver was a Le Shan native in his 40s who was working in Chengdu. His van was registered by a local concrete company. His 3-year-old child attends the kindergarten where the incident occured.

Police are now investigating the matter.

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This article was posted by Jane and published November 13, 2010

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Comments

- spandolf
  November 13, 2010
- Strange photo
  It looks like night time where the van is, but sunny and bright down the other end of the road
- jinjiang
  November 13, 2010
- sad. the contagion of western culture is now official; road rage has arrived in chengdu.
- tigerkuma
  November 13, 2010
- Man, i see the "Chinese stand-off' almost daily; a narrow street, two cars in opposing directions, can't squeeze past. The solution? Both guys RIDE the horn, continuously, persistently, infuriatingly, until one gives in. Just gotta laugh at stuff like this....
- sinro
  November 15, 2010
- "contagion of western culture" "road rage has arrived in Chengdu". The only sad thng is your opinion/comment. There isn't a moment without road rage the way Chinese people drive... cutting people off, honking non stop, changing lanes without looking/indicating, breaking like fools. Western culture has nothing to do with this, this is just a product of the chinese "me first" culture. Wether it's a parking space, getting on the bus or finding the best spot to take a picture from... eventually the pushing, shoving and elbowing gets to you... western or chinese
- actually.
  November 15, 2010
- i would be more inclined to agree that road rage is a western import. you don't see violent crimes occurring nearly as often per capita here as you do in the u.s. — and, despite the illegality of firearms here, it's not as if there's a lack of access of the means to violent crimes.
- jinjiang
  November 15, 2010
- Sinro: sorry that you think my comment is sad. The fact is, you have 4 times the people here than in the US but do not see anywhere near the level of violent crimes that one sees in the US. Yes, I have an american passport and have lived in NY, LA and Miami and can tell you that Chengdu does not have anywhere near the amount of road rage type of incidents that these US cities have (not even close)...that is kinda why I started traveling here 10 years ago and why I now live here. Yes, compared to the US, it is rare that you witness a physical confrontation as a means of resolving a traffic dispute. Sure, people cut each other off, honk horns ...but rare to see them exit their vehicles and try to kill each other. In my 10 years here I have definitely noticed an increased level of aggression (sadly). I am only waiting now for the accidental "bump" into someone on chunxi road that will start a fight; then chengdu's transformation into a western city will be complete.
- jester
  November 16, 2010
- I agree that road rage is not normal thing here. I have personally witnessed erratic and darn dangerous maneuvers made by other drivers on the road here (including full stop on the left lane of a highway and then driving backwards in that left lane because they missed the last turn off! All while talking on their cellphone...Hahaha!). What has always impressed me is the lack of road rage here. As I explained to my girlfriend (when we witnessed that driver), I am fairly certain that in many US cities, that driver may have been assaulted (unfortunately). But here in Sichuan, the other drivers (including me) just slowed down and went around him. Yes, there were horns honking but not because of anger...to address the other poster earlier who defined road rage as "honking non stop," don't confuse that with road rage. 99% of the time the horn honker (or the bicyclist ringing their bell for that matter) are simply alerting you that they are behind you; not because they are "raging." And as far as western culture...well, don't forget where the model-T came from. Like it or not, the culture of driving comes from the US as does all ensuing problems like traffic and road rage. :-)
- sinro
  November 16, 2010
- First you need to know what road rage is:
  "Road rage is aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other motor vehicle. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Road rage can lead to altercations, assaults, and collisions which result in injuries and even deaths. It can be thought of as an extreme case of aggressive driving."
  So yes, you see road rage on chinese roads every day, long before western culture was introduced to China.....
  Thinking that western culture is the reason for this death is just plain IGNORANT
- stef
  November 16, 2010
- I've lived in China for more than 5 years, and I'm so not surprised (by the comments, and the story). I understand that, as a nationalist, you don't want to criticize your own country and it's easier to say that it comes from other (in this case, western) countries, and that Chinese people are easily influenced and innocent, but please... I've seen that too often here.
  Driving is a competition here, respect on the road doesn't exist, and pedestrians are at their own risk when they want to cross a road.
  In Europe, we may insult each other, but I've never seen people stepping out of their car to fight with someone else, especially in this kind of situations.
- Ilovechina!!
  November 16, 2010
- to the poster sinro; why don't you chill out and play your ps3 you wanker
- jinjiang
  November 16, 2010
- unfortunately for him, i think sinro's aggressive posting and namecalling actually prove my point. omg...he's even posting in CAPS! hehe.
- sinro
  November 17, 2010
- at least i don't subscribe to a website the day an article is posted just to blame western culture....
  I'm just being objective, some things (negative and positive) are because of western culture creeping in, but this one isn't
- actually.
  November 17, 2010
- stef: puh-lease. why are you assuming that anybody is a "nationalist" (i'll assume you mean "chinese national")? i'm not, for one, and i have no idea about jinjiang.
  sinro: "objective." right.
- killin' in the name of
  November 17, 2010
- So does this fall into class struggle or traffic accident? In any case "they" should take the driver's licence away from that SUV driver, for at least 2 months, as a means of reeducation.