Drunken driver kills 4 in smash

A drunken driver killed four people in Miyun county when his vehicle was involved in a road traffic incident on April 15.

Cheng Jinsong was taking his daughter to a local hospital when the crash happened. The car hit by his vehicle caught fire immediately. Firefighters found the bodies of four people when they extinguished the flames.

Two family members who were traveling with Cheng were also injured in the collision. Hospital blood tests later showed he had high blood-alcohol content.

Police are investigating.

Traffic

New moves to target Guomao

The city's biggest traffic-dispersion project will be carried out near Guomao bridge, according to Chaoyang district's traffic commission.

Six motor vehicle lanes will be constructed, together with four left-turning waiting areas. Bus stations in the area will also be moved out and 20 more vehicles will be able to pass crossroads during the period of one green light.

The project is due to be finished in a month.

Court

Payout order for pal of suicide man

The colleague of a man who committed suicide has been ordered to pay 60,000 yuan in compensation to his family for telling him to "go die" in Beijing's Miyun county.

Song had accompanied his drunken colleague Zhang home in April 2009. Zhang kept saying how desperate he felt, and after trying in vain to cheer him up Song told him "you should go die". Zhang later killed himself by jumping into a river.

Miyun court found that Song was responsible for Zhang's death, as he should not have given negative advice to a man in an unstable emotional state.

Community

Animal lovers help save trapped cats

More than 10 animal protection campaigners were summoned by a micro blog on Tuesday to save cats living in Liangma Mansion in Chaoyang district. A micro blog post appeared on the Internet on Tuesday afternoon, saying that the property company of the mansion sealed a pipeline in which several cats were living. In three hours more than 10 people gathered, carrying cages and food.

For the next two and a half hours, only four cats were captured. The campaigners were allowed only two days to rescue the cats. The poster of the micro blog said the campaigners should have been given more time.

Community

Boost in capital's water efficiency

While total agricultural water consumption continues to fall, the capital's agricultural water use efficiency rating has risen from 0.65 to 0.68 in the past five years, getting close to the figure in developed countries.

The index used to measure the efficiency is the effective utilization coefficient of irrigation water, which means the ratio of water consumed by plants and the total amount introduced to the land.

According to data released by the Beijing Water Authority, the average agricultural water use efficiency in China is only 0.5, while in developed countries, the figure is between 0.7 and 0.8.

(China Daily 04/28/2011 page)