Wang Yue

Last year, the case of Wang Yue, the 2 year-old who was run over twice and left for dead by 19 pedestrians caused much soul searching about the apathy of the Chinese public.

Now the first driver to hit her, Hu Jun, has had his jail sentence reduced by a year to 2 and a half years on appeal, according to Southern Metropolis Daily. After the accident, Hu carried on with his life for 3 days and maintains he didn’t see the girl and only found out about the incident when he saw it in the news. He turned himself in.

Tests showed that a person of Hu’s height, travelling at that speed and at that time of day may genuinely not have known that he had hit the girl, so his sentence was reduced.

Hu’s lawyer Liu Jingsong made the case that Liu’s driving was careless rather than reckless. Wang Yue’s parents, who have received 303,000 yuan in compensation, expressed forgiveness of Hu, who contributed to the toddler’s medical fees when she was fighting for her life in hospital.

Since the incident, the Chinese government has made efforts to reward and encourage Good Samaritans, and some of the most examplary behaviour has been by expats. This year, a Brazilian in Dongguan was awarded for intervening to stop a robbery while law enforcement people stood and watched.