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Family to sue railway for death

By Liang Qiwen and Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-10 08:53

GUANGZHOU: The family of a migrant worker who died after being tied down by train crew for 10 hours plans to sue railway authorities for between 400,000 ($ 59,000) and 500,000 yuan.

Cao Dahe, a migrant worker from Guizhou province, died on a train from Guangzhou to Zunyi on Sept 25, after he was tied down for nearly 10 hours following allegations he had gone insane.

Cao's family received 120,000 yuan, including 20,000 yuan in train insurance, from the train company on Sept 30, but his elder brother said the sum was insufficient.

"My brother has died. It is pointless to fight for other things; he left two small kids, and we are poor all we want is more money," Cao Dachun told China Daily.

Zhang Kai, a lawyer from Beijing's Yijia Law Firm, confirmed the family had engaged his services.

Cao Dajun, the younger brother of Cao Dahe, said the 30-year-old was returning for a mental health examination from Foshan, Guangdong province, where he began behaving erratically.

The family has since received calls from his co-workers saying Cao had recently appeared agitated at work.

Cheng Zhunqiang, who claimed to be a passenger on the train, posted what he saw online at Tianya.cn.

A few hours after the train set off around 8:30 pm, Cheng claimed, Cao began to shout and even attempted to jump through the window.

The chief of the train's crew, surnamed Huang, then tied Cao up with plastic tape at the suggestion of passengers.

"During the whole night, Cao kept yelling and begging people to untie him," Cheng said in his posting.

Around 7 am, Cheng asked the crew chief to release him, but he refused.

"About 9 am, the crew chief found the plastic tape was loose and then tied Cao with more tape," Cheng said.

"At that time, Cao's body, except his head, was covered by tape."

Cheng tried to stop the crew, but the chief said he was forced to keep Cao bound in order to prevent him from hurting himself and others.

Just 10 minutes later, Cheng discovered Cao's legs had become stiff and his face was pale.

Cheng again requested the crew chief untie Cao, but he again refused.

When Cheng decided to untie Cao himself, it was too late.

China News Service quoted Mu Zejun, deputy head of Guiyang railway section, as saying the Web postings of the incident were inaccurate.

"If you read the postings carefully, you will come up with a fundamental question: How can a train crew chief kill a passenger in the face of more than 100 passengers? So that is unfair to the chief," he said.

The crew chief was suspended and his actions are currently being investigated, he said.