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Investigation finds boy was not run over twice

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A 5-year-old boy killed in a traffic accident in Sichuan province was buried on Sunday, ending a three-day uproar over the cause of his death.

The truck involved in the traffic accident.[File photo]

On Thursday morning, Xiong Maoke, a kindergarten student, in Yunfeng village in Luxian county, was on his way home when he was hit by a truck.

He died immediately, but his body was not removed from under the wheels of the truck until seven hours later because villagers demanded instant compensation, said county officials at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

Villagers had claimed that the truck hit Xiong, knocking him down, rolled backwards, then moved forward with the boy trapped under the wheels, dragging him for about 10 meters.

However, an investigation found no evidence that the boy had been run over twice, said Li Zekun, head of the Luxian county traffic police team.

Medical experts found that the boy died of traumatic brain injury, and they inferred that the boy was hit while standing.

After the incident, the truck driver Ao Yong applied the emergency brake and the truck produced a long drag mark before it stopped, Li said.

Unlike the heartlessness shown by the two drivers and passers-by in the case of Yue Yue in Guangdong, 35-year-old Ao, a native of Luxian, was the first to call the police.

Ao had been transporting cement from neighboring Chongqing municipality to Luxian when his truck hit the boy.

Getting out of the truck, Ao found Xiong trapped under a front wheel. Because of the severe condition of the boy, he did not dare to move him and he immediately contacted the police.

When Ao was arrested he pledged to pay as much as Xiong's mother demanded.