Head of Shanghai VW dies in business trip crash

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:33 July 20 2010]
• Comments

Liu Jian, general manager of Shanghai Volkswagen, at a ceremony earlier this year. Photo: IC

By Zhou Ping

The general manager of Shanghai Volkswagen was killed in a car accident in Guazhou county of Gansu Province on Saturday, the automaker announced Monday.

Shanghai Volkswagen said that Liu Jian and three other people in his party died in the accident. They were on a business trip visiting dealers and performing test drives. The company added that the accident has not impacted on the company's operations.

A group of people led by Shen Jianhua, the president of the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation Group, which is the Chinese joint-venture partner in Shanghai Volkswagen, has gone to Gansu Province to cooperate with local police.

A staffer from the public relations department of Shanghai Volkswagen refused to comment further on the issue when contacted by the Global Times Monday.

Beijing-based Legal Evening News quoted an online post from an unidentified source that claimed the party was traveling in a Volkswagen Tiguan at a speed of 220 kilometers per hour, two kilometers away from the Guazhou border checkpoint, soon before the car exploded.

Another unconfirmed report said that the car collided with a construction truck.

The report named another victim as Zeng Jialin, the director of Shanghai Volkswagen's public relations department.

No information regarding the circumstances of the accident has been released by Guazhou traffic police.

The head of the police traffic accident department in Guazhou, surnamed Yan, refused to give further information Monday. "Since the accident is still under investigation, I can't tell you any details right now," he said.

Liu graduated from Shanghai's Tongji University in 1986, and then immediately joined Shanghai Volkswagen, where he worked until 2001. He returned as general manager in October 2007.