Drink-death case may reopen
25/10/2008 13:33
Fei Lai/Shanghai Daily news
More than a year after the
sudden death of Hu Shanshan, a sales promoter of Budweiser beer, her family
yesterday reapplied for her case to be heard by the Labor and Social Security
Bureau of Xuhui District.
Hu died at a karaoke bar on Sichuan Road N. in the
early hours of September 30, 2007. Hu had been working at the KTV bar throughout
the evening but was found passed out in a room with four guests about 1am. She
had slipped into a coma. She was sent to hospital at 1:50am, where doctors
pronounced her dead.
According to an insider, where Hu had passed out, there
were 32 empty beer cans and an empty red wine bottle scattered around the room,
most of which had been drunk by Hu.
Born in 1988, Hu came to Shanghai from
Jiangsu Province to find work. Before her death, Hu had been working as a sales
promoter for Budweiser for more than six months, with a monthly salary of about
2,000 yuan (US$292).
Hu's family and Budweiser did not agree on whether Hu's
death was an industrial accident. Since Hu's work hours ended at midnight,
Budweiser argued that she was no longer working when she died. The focus of the
dispute was when Hu had entered the KTV room.
Ye Mantian, the lawyer
employed by Hu's family, said that some time had elapsed between Hu falling into
a coma and being taken to hospital. The karaoke bar was open throughout the
period and while Hu's hours officially ended at midnight, it was common for her
to work overtime.
However, Budweiser's lawyers said the monitoring video at
the bar showed Hu came into the room wearing her own clothes, rather than the
company's uniform, at 0:30am, which meant she had already stopped working.
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