Man arrested for throwing old woman off bridge after scooter accident
A Vietnamese migrant worker was arrested on Christmas eve, two hours after he allegedly knocked over an elderly woman, then threw her off a bridge before fleeing the scene of the accident in New Taipei City.
Shortly after 9:00 pm on December 24, 79-year-old Ms Du (杜) was walking across Fenglin Bridge in Ruifang District, when she was hit by a scooter from behind. According to a witness, the scooter rider then picked up the petite Ms Du, and threw her over the bridge railing.
Miraculously, Ms Du survived both being hit by the scooter, and being thrown off the bridge. Rescuers hoisted Ms Du on a stretcher from a slope 15 meters down. Ms Du was conscious, and while suffering a lower leg fracture, bruises and lacerations, none of her injuries were considered life-threatening.
The witness, a bus driver, had just ended his shift at a bus terminal adjacent to the bridge when he witnessed the incident. Mr Wang was sitting in his bus doing paperwork when the accident occurred.
Mr Wang said that both Ms Du and the scooter rider fell to the ground in the accident, then the scooter rider stood up, picked up Ms Du, holding her up high, and dumped her off the side of the bridge. Wang ran to the scene of the accident, shouted at the scooter rider to stop, then took down the license number of the scooter as the suspect fled.
Police traced the scooter to a factory nearby and arrested a 33-year-old man named Nguyen. Nguyen argued that he had attempted to help the elderly woman after accidentally knocking her over, and that she had lost her balance and fallen over the guardrail.
After making his statements to police, Nguyen was sent to the District Prosecutor to be charged on suspicion of attempted murder, and leaving the scene of an accident.
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