By Riyaz ul Khaliq
ISTANBUL (AA) – China on Friday executed a driver for using "dangerous means" to kill five people in an accident two years ago.
Liu Dong was sentenced to death by the Dalian Intermediate People's Court for dangerous driving of a car. The court in the port city of Dalian on the Liaodong Peninsula, at the southern tip of China's Liaoning province, had charged him with "endangering public security by dangerous means."
Liu “plunged his car into a crowd, killing five people and injuring others on May 22, 2021,” the Chinese daily Global Times reported.
According to the prosecutors, the executed driver “suddenly accelerated, deliberately ran a red light, and rammed into pedestrians” crossing the zebra crossing on the sidewalk at the north gate of Wuhui Road Labor Park while driving from west to east along Wuhui Road in Zhongshan district of Dalian city.
It caused five deaths, two serious injuries and four minor injuries.
After the accident, “Liu Dong continued to drive to the intersection of Wuhui road and Jiefang road. After rear-ending a van, he stopped. Liu Dong abandoned the car and fled the scene. He was brought to justice that afternoon,” according to the TellerReport news website.
His appeal was rejected last September by the Liaoning Provincial Higher People’s Court, which upheld the original judgment of the death sentence.
The court later sought approval from China’s Supreme People’s Court for Liu Dong’s execution.