4 Truckers Drive 1,000km to Return Dead Driver's Vehicle to Family

Four truck drivers drove through the night to return a heavy truck to the family of a 34-year-old driver from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, after he died suddenly in a service area in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Yangtze Evening News reported.

The driver, surnamed Liu, had parked his truck at the Binzhou service area in Xianyang on the evening of July 21. He got out to check the vehicle and later slept inside the cab, but never woke up.

The truck remained parked at the service area for three days and nights before someone checked on it and found Liu had died. His family took his body home, but they did not know how to drive the heavy truck, leaving them unsure how to bring the vehicle back to Jiangsu.

On the evening of July 25, the family reached four trucker friends who were in Shaanxi. They asked whether the group could help drive the truck back to Suining County in Xuzhou.

One of the drivers, identified as Kache Axi, told the newspaper that the four agreed immediately and arrived at the Binzhou service area early on July 26. When they opened the cab, the smell was too strong for anyone to enter. They spent nearly 1,000 yuan (US$139) on protective suits, masks, disinfectant, alcohol and other supplies, then cleaned and disinfected the truck.

On the morning of July 27, the four men set off for Suining with Liu's truck and another car. Because the truck was still loaded with cargo and the situation was unusual, they decided to travel through the night.

"We discussed it and decided the people could rest, but the vehicles would not stop," Kache Axi said. "Every two hours, we stopped at a service area and opened the doors on both sides to air out the cab. The windows stayed open, and we sprayed cleaning fluid every dozen minutes."

On the morning of July 28, they delivered the truck to Liu's family in Suining.

"We didn't let the family pay a cent," Kache Axi said. "But when we saw Liu's daughter was only 7 years old, we were moved to tears. We also gave the child 2,000 yuan."

After the handover, the four drivers went home separately. "No matter how hard it was, since the family came to us, we had to bring the truck back all the way," Kache Axi said. "It was what we should do."