When you encounter an elderly person who has fallen, will you reach out and lift them up?
If it had been twenty years ago, I think the vast majority of people would have replied in the affirmative.
But now, even if many people have the heart to help, I am afraid that they have to weigh it: what if the other party blackmails them?
In recent years, there have been too many reports of "road support for the elderly being blackmailed", and under the role of propaganda, people have to be cautious.
One of the most representative is the Nanjing Peng Yu case, which occurred sixteen years ago.
To this day, the truth of the case remains divided. And the parties to the matter are also silent.
So what is the real situation? Did Peng Yu bump into the old lady in the end?
With doubts in mind, let's review what happened.
The details of the matter
On the morning of November 20, 2006, Xu Shoulan left her niece's home to go to the bus station of Shuiximen Square in Nanjing.
At about 9:30, in order to catch the No. 83 bus, Xu Shoulan walked a little faster.
As a result, he fell near the back door of the bus.
At this time, a young man named Peng Yu lifted Xu Shoulan up, along with Chen Erchun, who immediately called to inform the old man's family.
After the family arrived, Chen Erchun left, and Peng Yu accompanied them to send the old man to Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine for examination.
However, when it came to the issue of compensation, the two sides had a fierce dispute, and finally they could only call the police to resolve it.
In the afternoon of the same day, the Nanjing City Police Station separately questioned the parties Peng Yu and Chen Erchun and left a record.
More than a month later, the injured elderly Xu Shoulan filed a lawsuit with the Nanjing Gulou District People's Court: peng Yu was required to pay medical expenses, totaling more than 136,000 yuan.
A few days later, the Nanjing Gulou District People's Court accepted the lawsuit.
On April 26, the case was heard for the first time.
But during the verdict after the trial, something strange happened.
When the presiding judge Wang Hao went to the police station in the city to retrieve the interrogation record, he was told that the whereabouts of the record were unknown, and finally had to let the police officer who handled the case at the time go to the court to repeat it through recollection.
The court made a transcript on this basis.
On June 13, the second hearing began.
The party, Peng Yu, argued in court that he had lifted up the plaintiff in order to do good deeds, and this time it was also the first time that the court announced that the original record was missing.
Since then, the two sides have disagreed.
On 6 July, the third hearing was held.
At the trial, the plaintiff, Xu Shoulan, provided photographs of the defendant's transcript at the time, which clearly showed that the defendant Peng Yu admitted to knocking down someone.
However, Peng Yu argued that the photo was not the original transcript, which could have been tampered with and could not be used as evidence for litigation.
At the same time, he invited witness Chen Erchun to testify, but Chen Erchun said that the two only lifted up the old man together, and as for the process of her falling to the ground, he did not witness it.
This was also affirmed by the plaintiff, Xu Shoulan.
On September 4, the court rendered the following judgment:
It was found that the plaintiff was indeed injured due to the collision with the defendant, and according to the principle of fair liability, the defendant should bear 40% of the civil liability, that is, Peng Yu should compensate the elderly Xu Shoulan for more than 45,000 yuan.
After this judgment was disclosed by the media, it caused great repercussions and controversies in the society, and even the two parties expressed dissatisfaction with such a judgment.
They appealed to the Nanjing Intermediate Court.
In the end, the intermediate court did not conduct a second-instance trial, and for the purpose of reducing the social impact, the case was mediated, and the two parties finally reached a settlement and both withdrew the lawsuit, and the case came to an end.
Peng Yu's case is full of doubts
Although the case ended in the judicial process, the discussion in society continued for many years.
The main reason for this is that there are too many doubts in the case to explain.
In the first instance, the original reason for the judgment given by the court was based on the principle of fair responsibility, holding that both parties were not at fault, so each bears part of the responsibility.
It is true that both parties have their own opinions, and neither side can give conclusive evidence that the fault lies with the other party, so it cannot be said unreasonable for the court to make such a decision.
But the premise is that it must be proved that the two sides have indeed collided, which is the most critical, otherwise there is no way to divide the responsibility.
However, Peng Yu always claimed that he was righteous and courageous, and did not admit that the two had collided, was the truth as he said?
There was no surveillance video to prove it, so witnesses had to be looked for.
Chen Erchun, who was present as an eyewitness, did not witness the most critical collision, he only said that Peng Yu took a few steps forward before helping Xu Shoulan up.
Neither Chen Erchun nor the plaintiff nor the defendant knew each other, and there was no reason to give false testimony, so his testimony was credible.
Judging from his words, according to Peng Yu's actions at that time, it didn't seem like he knocked people down.
However, there is still a possibility, Xu Shoulan is a thin old man, Peng Yu is a strong young man, if he knocked Xu Shoulan out of the air a meter or two, it is not impossible.
Now that there is no evidence or witness testimony, judgment can only be made from the confessions of the parties.
But this is also difficult, because the original transcript has been lost, and the photographs really cannot be counted as valid evidence.
This is why the court can only compromise judgments.
That being the case, we can only try to analyze the series of behaviors of the parties.
According to Peng Yu, he saw Xu Shoulan fall when he got out of the car, so he lifted her up, which was a good deed.
But it was also a good deed, why did Chen Erchun leave first?
And Peng Yu still has to accompany Xu Shoulan's family to the hospital? Even after arriving at the hospital, Peng Yu paid 200 yuan in advance?
It's a bit of a mystery.
In the end, this became a factor in the court's judgment, but under the guidance of some media, many people thought that this was a bit of a villain.
Because Peng Yu may be a very kind and selfless person, he is just for the purpose of helping others.
Peng Yu's explanation for this is that at that time, the old man's relatives only came to one person, that is, the old man's son.
He was worried that there were not enough people to follow and help.
But is that really the case?
Peng Yu is likely to have selectively concealed some of the facts
In fact, regarding Peng Yu's description of this matter, we can't see first-hand information, many of which are disclosed by the media, and what the media adopts is the description of the parties.
For example, shortly after the incident, the Modern Express gave a complete report on the incident:
At that time, Chen Erchun called Xu Shoulan's son and niece successively, and then Xu Shoulan's son Pan Hui came, but his niece did not come.
At this time, Peng Yu wanted to leave, but the other party said that there were some insufficient manpower, and it was inconvenient to register and accompany the old man, so he asked him to help.
Peng Yuyi thought that he didn't have anything to do at that time anyway, so he did it to the end.
Of course, these are all Oral Accounts of Peng Yu.
However, this is very different from Xu Shoulan's niece's statement.
Xu Shoulan's niece said that after the old man was taken to the hospital, she saw Chen Erchun, and her cousin (Pan Hui) was also there at the time, and Chen Erchun left later.
Chen Erchun himself also expressed his approval of this.
But Peng Yu did not say so, he insisted that Chen Erchun left early, only he accompanied Xu Shoulan and other her family, and did not see Xu Shoulan's niece.
In this way, Xu Shoulan's niece actually went,
So why did Peng Yu deliberately conceal this?
This is very unreasonable, Peng Yu deliberately did not say this matter, may be to prove that there is a shortage of manpower, so that he has a reasonable explanation for sending Xu Shoulan to the hospital together.
On the other hand, Xu Shoulan's son Pan Hui wants to find someone to help, so why should he go to Peng Yu, an outsider?
Xu Shoulan is a woman, and it is definitely more appropriate to let her family members who are also women accompany her in the hospital.
But if Peng Yu just wants to do good, then after the old man's relatives rushed to the hospital, Peng Yu still insisted on accompanying, which was unreasonable.
If Peng Yu hides this from the media, how can it help him?
This actually has an important impact on the truth, because concealment can avoid public doubts about his personal behavior.
On the one hand,
If Peng Yu is a helpful and good person to the end, he should also be open-minded.
From the perspective of avoiding misunderstandings, words can also cause many misunderstandings.
The reason why Peng Yu chose to hide it was most likely that he was afraid that the development of things would be unfavorable to him.
Because the truth is likely to be that he accompanied Xu Shoulan to the hospital not because of insufficient manpower, but because he had an inescapable responsibility, which he did not want to be known.
Peng Yu paid 200 yuan for Xu Shoulan's medical expenses on the same day, but the explanation given was that Pan Hui did not have money on him.
But in that era, there was no electronic payment means such as Alipay, and the average person would bring some cash with him.
Moreover, Pan Huiming knew that his mother had fallen and was injured, so how could he not take some money when he came?
And Xu Shoulan's niece also came, can't the two people make up 200 yuan? It's hard to believe.
Therefore, Peng Yu's statement became even more strange.
More facts made Peng Yu more suspicious
On the other hand, Peng Yu's performance at the trial is also questionable.
At the first hearing,
Peng Yu was even cross-examined by his wife, and only stated that the plaintiff's injuries were not caused by himself and should not be liable.
It wasn't until the second hearing that he began to claim to be innocent just to do good.
The two trials were separated by about five months.
According to normal thinking, if a person is wronged, he should be the first to speak to defend himself, and there is no reason to remain silent for five months.
Although Peng Yu himself did not appear at the first trial, and her wife defended on his behalf, as a husband and wife, this kind of thing should definitely be discussed in advance.
It is unlikely that Peng Yu's wife would not speak out without knowing anything about the matter.
At the second trial, Peng Yu learned that the transcripts made at the police station had been lost, and only the photos and the records of the police handling the case were dictated through memories.
So is this the reason why Peng Yu thinks that the evidence is unreliable and only temporarily changes his mind?
Pan Hui's identity became a reason for the invalidity of the evidence
Although the original confession is missing, the photograph is also quite convincing.
So why can't this photo be used as direct evidence?
It turned out that all this was related to the old man's son identity.
At that time, a reporter interviewed the director of the police station in the city and asked him how the confession photo was taken, and the director Lu Changbin said that he took it with his mobile phone.
However, Peng Yu found a problem from it, because he was engaged in communication work, and he was more knowledgeable about this mobile phone, and he immediately pointed out that it did not match the camera of the mobile phone after seeing the photo.
This was also confirmed by Peng Yu after the third trial.
Before, he only knew that the original transcript was missing, but he did not know that there was a photograph.
Therefore, when Peng Yu found that there was a problem with the photo, he immediately questioned it.
Director Lu Changbin had no choice but to admit that the photo was actually taken by Pan Hui.
It turned out that Pan Hui secretly took a photo after reading the record, just in case, and was later found by the police to detain the photo.
Pan Hui is not an ordinary person, his identity is very sensitive, and he is the eighth policeman from the Nanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau.
And this unit is the superior of the police station in the city, so the photo thing has become difficult to distinguish between authenticity and falsity.
Originally, according to the photos, there were Peng Yu's fingerprints on the record, and it was said that it was very difficult to fake.
However, Pan Hui, who photographed it, is a relative of the plaintiff's side, which is difficult to say clearly.
After this matter was made public, many people thought that Pan Hui conspired with Lu Changbin to make this fake photo, and deliberately destroyed the real record.
In fact, although Pan Hui's unit is the superior of the police station in the city, he himself is just an ordinary policeman.
He was not a big leader, so how could he have the right to coerce Lu Changbin, the director?
Not to mention that the two people didn't know each other before.
Of course, Pan Hui may also hope to borrow his identity to make the police station provide some convenience.
Pan Hui looked at the transcript and was not compliant in itself.
Because this case is not his responsibility at all, even if he is responsible, because of his relationship with the plaintiff, he must avoid suspicion.
But that's all, and it's basically impossible to say that he colluded with the police station to forge evidence.
In fact, according to mainland law, when the original evidence is not there, as long as it can be proved that the photocopy and the original are consistent, it can be regarded as valid.
Later, the memories of the two policemen who handled the case were roughly consistent with the photos, which basically proved that the possibility of photo falsification was very low.
However, this raises the question of whether procedural justice is important.
Photographs as evidence in themselves may not be too problematic, but there is a problem with the way the evidence is obtained, so it cannot be accepted.
The main responsibility for getting to this point is the police station in the city, the day of the accident was just in time for the renovation of the office, the environment was a bit chaotic, which led to the loss of the record that could be used as key evidence.
The attitude of the plaintiff's side towards the first-instance judgment was also questionable
In fact, in addition to the fact that Peng Yu's side was somewhat suspicious, the plaintiff Xu Shoulan's performance was also very strange.
The first-instance trial ruled that Peng Yu should bear 45,000 yuan in medical expenses, and both sides were not satisfied with this.
An appeal was filed, but they eventually accepted mediation.
The result of the mediation is that Peng Yu only needs to pay 10,000 yuan.
So according to this, many people have questioned Xu Shoulan:
Is it that she has a lack of guilt in her heart, coupled with media revelations that it is not good for her?
On the other hand, from Peng Yu lifting Xu Shoulan to before the results of the hospital examination came out, the mentality of both sides was actually relatively peaceful for a long time.
Even Xu Shoulan thanked Peng Yu at the beginning, and at that time, Pan Hui did not say that he would hold Peng Yu responsible.
If Peng Yu really bumped into someone, it seems that the scene should not be so harmonious.
Both sides have difficulty giving conclusive evidence, and their actions are difficult to explain, so this matter has also formed a very wide discussion on the Internet.
There were many opinions, and the "Rashomon Incident" was eventually formed.
However, in the overall public opinion wind, the plaintiff Xu Shoulan's side is becoming more and more unfavorable.
Perhaps because some media and netizens have forcibly described this matter as helping the elderly to be blackmailed in order to win people's attention, many people who do not know the truth easily believe this statement.
The pressure of public opinion on the plaintiff Xu Shoulan's family has made many people regard them as liars who deliberately slander good people, which makes them overwhelmed.
In the end, he could only swallow the bitter fruit helplessly and accepted the court's mediation plan.
The amount of compensation in Peng Yumi's final mediation plan was far lower than the first-instance judgment and was also accepted.
As for the harmonious atmosphere between the two sides in the hospital, it is likely that at first everyone did not expect Xu Shoulan's injury to be so serious, thinking that it was just an ordinary contusion.
However, after the diagnosis found that she had a serious fracture and needed a lot of medical expenses, the two sides quarreled.
However, after this incident, the two sides have since been silent and have gradually disappeared from the public's vision.
The truth of the matter is likely to be inconsistent with the public impression
Sixteen years have passed since the Peng Yu incident, but the discussion about this matter has not stopped.
Some statements even exaggerate that the Peng Yu case has set back the moral level of society by fifty years.
These statements are obviously irresponsible, and if the truth of the matter is not even determined, and the definition is rushed, then how persuasive is it?
In fact, based on the previous doubts, we can probably speculate.
Xu Shoulan and Peng Yu inadvertently collided, causing Xu Shoulan to fall and be injured.
At first, Peng Yu did not expect Xu Shoulan's injury to be so serious, so he did not plan to escape.
But then he found that the medical expenses were too high, and he had other ideas.
At this time, the key evidence was lost, giving him the opportunity to change his mouth.
In fact, in the process of litigation trial, things that the parties did not tell the truth due to various reasons or hardships happened from time to time.
There was no need to turn the moral stick that had been swung at Xu Shoulan and then hit Peng Yu again.
Although Peng Yu most likely lied to the media, he still had a good heart.
After colliding with the old man, Peng Yu did not leave alone, but chose to support the old man and help the family to send her to the examination, and was willing to provide some compensation.
These actions show that he is actually a kind person.
But it turned out that the medical bills were too high and exceeded his expectations, plus he believed that the responsibility for the collision did not lie with him.
Therefore, he chose to hide the facts and failed to keep the bottom line.
This matter is not a big case, but the negative role played by the media and some netizens has finally pushed it to the cusp of the storm.
This point needs to be clarified to the public.
It is precisely because of the biased reports of many media and the emotional venting of many people in the society that a civil litigation case is more and more deviated from its own meaning.
It also turned Xu Shoulan into an evil person who framed a good person.
It was too cruel for her to not only bear the pain of being hit, but even to suffer mentally.
Peng Yu's case is over, but it's a no-winner lawsuit.
The elderly Xu Shoulan has died amid pain and overwhelming condemnation, and Although Peng Yu has mediated through the court, the amount of medical compensation has been reduced to 10,000 yuan.
But we believe that he will carry this guilt for the elderly all his life.
This sixteen-year-old case deserves our deep consideration.
At present, although the media and the Internet are becoming more and more developed, when the media reports, they should be in the spirit of seeking truth from facts, and cannot report some things that have not yet been evidenced in order to attract traffic.
As media audiences, we should also have our own judgment.
You can't lose yourself in the overwhelming information network, easily believe some specious things, let the influence of things continue to expand, and make social unhealthy trends more and more prevalent.
You must know that the power of public opinion is powerful, it can hold people up to the sky, and it can also completely destroy people.
And the truth of "all mouths shoveling gold, accumulating and destroying bones" should also make us wake up!