TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A 34-year-old woman surnamed Yan (顏), while driving under the influence of alcohol in Taichung, smashed her Mercedes-Benz into a 32-year-old baker, who was riding his scooter in the early hours of Tuesday morning (Nov. 14), marking her second victim while at the wheel of a luxury vehicle, according to a report by TVBS.
According to Taichung police, the baker, surnamed Chen (陳), was heading out on his scooter to buy baking supplies when at 1:08 a.m., Nov. 14 he was fatally struck at the intersection of Xitunqu Wenxin Road and Xitun Road by a white Mercedes-Benz driven by Yan, who was found to have blood alcohol level of 0.46 milligrams of alcohol per liter of breath (mg/L), well above the legal threshold of 0.15 mg/l. Chen was pronounced dead before he reached the hospital.
Immediately after the accident, Yan, who is a hostess at the KTV sex club Golden Jaguar (金錢豹), asked two male coworkers to help her push the car away from the scene of the crime. When questioned by police, she initially said that a man with the nickname "Chubby" (小胖), was at the wheel when the accident occurred, who she pretended to contact to try to throw the cops off. However, police soon discovered through CCTV cameras and eyewitnesses that she was actually the driver of the vehicle during the accident.
Incredibly, Yan seemed to show little remorse when she posted an update on her Facebook page after the accident saying, "I've gotten on the news!" Though she soon took it down, it had already been shared with many netizens, who chastised her, and posted comments on her page such as "murderer" and made calls for legalized flogging of drunk drivers.
In addition to having a blood alcohol level of 0.46 mg/L, police found 0.56 grams of Ketamine in her car. Prosecutors have charged her with public endangerment and criminal negligence, and after undergoing questioning by the Taichung District Prosecutors Office, she went before a court hearing where she was ordered to be taken into custody, with visitation allowed.
Photo of Yan singing KTV. (Image from Yan's Facebook page)
When Yan's mother was interviewed by the media, she said that her daughter had a bad fate, has no money to pay for compensation, and will go to jail. Her mother added that she hoped that the family of the victims and society will forgive her and her daughter.
However, her elder brother said that her income at the sex club in fact is substantial, but conceded that her spending is also excessive. He said that she frequently was drunk while at the wheel, "it was just that she had not been caught before," so he was not surprised when she tested positive for alcohol.
Scene of fatal accident. (CNA Image)
In 2015, after bingeing on drugs and alcohol, Yan wildly drove a Lexus sedan backwards and smashed into a woman driving a car surnamed Huang (黃), totaling the vehicles and causing Huang to suffer a concussion. Though Yan was found to be at fault and punished for her reckless driving, two years later she has repeated the same pattern of behavior, though this time with more tragic consequences.
Photo of the baker Chen. (Image from Chen's Facebook page)