BEIJING — She was a rich woman driving a silver BMW. They were a peasant and his wife on a rickety tractor hauling a load of market-bound spring onions. Their lives were a universe apart until a sack of scallions got tangled with the side-view mirror of the luxury car.
The outraged BMW driver, witnesses say, leaped out and punched and kicked the couple, screaming, "How can you afford to scratch my car?" A crowd gathered to watch.
The woman got back into her BMW and plowed into the bystanders, killing the farmer's wife and injuring 12 others.
This is the gist of China's most famous traffic accident, which happened in the fall in Harbin, a city in the remote northeastern industrial rust belt. Few people outside the immediate area would have heard about it if it were not for the court judgment issued last month against the driver, Su Xiuwen -- a two-year sentence with a three-year suspension, suggesting that she may not spend a day in jail.
In a country with the highest number of executions in the world and where the smallest legal infringement can merit harsh punishment, many Chinese saw the ruling as a slap in the face. The country's increasingly vocal court of public opinion, incensed that a well-off defendant appeared to be above the law, resounded on the Internet. That online anger prompted traditional media outlets to catch up and follow every development, making it one of the hottest news items in recent memory.
Last weekend, local officials finally bowed to the pressure and vowed to reinvestigate the case for judicial improprieties.
"We've received more than 200,000 postings within 10 days. That's the biggest response we have ever got for a single story," said Chen Tong, editor-in-chief of China's largest Internet portal, Sina.com. "The story really touched a nerve with a lot of people because of the stark contrast between the filthy-rich BMW driver and the dirt-poor onion peddler."
If it were not for that rich symbolism, the incident easily could have gotten lost in a country that is newly in love with the automobile and already too familiar with the price of traffic accidents. Two decades ago, cars were rare and almost everyone pedaled bikes to work. Today, the streets of large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are virtual parking lots.
The roads also have become more dangerous. China reported more than 660,000 road accidents and 104,000 traffic-related deaths last year. That's an average of 284 killed daily -- the equivalent of one jumbo jet tumbling from the sky every day.
