Wuhan police report on ride-hailing car trapped in street: one given public security penalty, three given criticism and education

A ride-hailing car was surrounded and blocked on a Wuhan street during Halloween, with drink bottles piled on the vehicle and the valve core of a rear tire pressed.

Local police reported that one person was given a public security penalty and three were given criticism and education.

The Jiang'an District Branch of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau said in a notice on its "Ping'an Jiang'an" account on the evening of Monday (November 2) that at around 17:00 last Saturday (October 31), a 58-year-old ride-hailing driver surnamed Gao drove to the intersection of Yangzi Street and Shengli Street and became stranded in the road because of heavy foot traffic.

During this time, passing pedestrians pressed the valve core of the vehicle's right rear tire, slapped the rearview mirror, placed miscellaneous objects on the vehicle body, and engaged in other such behavior.

The notice said that after inspection and investigation, the vehicle body was not damaged.

Public security authorities have lawfully imposed a public security penalty on a 29-year-old man surnamed Zhou who was involved, and gave criticism and education to three others.

Media previously reported that a ride-hailing car was surrounded and blocked by a crowd on Shengli Street in the Jianghan Road pedestrian area of Wuhan.

The vehicle was not only piled with drink bottles and garbage, but some people also smashed its windows, scrawled graffiti, and let air out of its tires, while the driver could only sit helplessly in the car.

The report said the incident lasted four hours, during which the driver suffered an emotional breakdown and could only call passengers to explain.

He was powerless to stop the crowd's frenzied behavior and could only watch as the vehicle was severely damaged.

Many Chinese internet users posted messages expressing dissatisfaction over the incident, and many called on the perpetrators to turn themselves in.

After the police notice, many internet users said the punishment was too light.

Cover News quoted Ma Junzhe, director of Guangdong Zheqing Law Firm, as saying that scrawling graffiti on another person's vehicle and piling garbage on it involve both civil and administrative liability: civilly, it constitutes tort and requires compensation for cleaning costs, lost work, and other losses; administratively, it may result in a warning, fine, or detention; and if the losses are large and the circumstances serious, it may even constitute the crime of intentional destruction of property.

But the lawyer also added that in this type of case, there are many people at the scene and the destructive acts are scattered, making evidence collection relatively difficult.