THE city’s urban management bureau announced Friday that Zhong Yujun, the former deputy director of the forest public security subbureau, was deprived of Party membership and demoted to another lower-level position due to a hit-and-run April 20.

    The announcement read that Zhong, 49, left his office and drove a police car on the night of April 20 and hit a Bentley sedan that was parking on the roadside about 150 meters away from the forest public security subbureau in Futian District.

    The collision caused serious damage to both cars. Instead of reporting the accident to the police, Zhong fled the scene on foot. He turned himself in to the Futian traffic police office at noon the next day.

    The urban management bureau started investigating after the incident and suspended all of Zhong’s duties.

    After a few months of investigation, it was confirmed that Zhong had violated the traffic laws for leaving the scene and not reporting the accident to the police after the collision. He broke rules by driving a police car while off duty and not wearing a uniform.

    The traffic police bureau decided Zhong be fully responsible for the accident and be detained for 10 days with a fine of 10,000 yuan (US$1,565). Zhong will also have 12 penalty points added to his driver license and be suspended from driving for three months.

    In video obtained by the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper, Zhong appeared drunk after the accident. He had attended a dinner party. Footage from the surveillance camera showed a man, suspected to be Zhong, stumbling in and out of the subbureau several times.

    Zhong denied that he had been driving drunk during several interrogations afterwards. The traffic police failed to test whether Zhong was drunk or not after the accident, because he had fled the scene and returned to his office.

    (Zhang Qian)