A young man is dead, and Chinese officials at different government levels in Hunan Province apparently could have prevented it.

Their alleged callous indifference to 29-year-old Zhang Hengsheng -who lay helplessly dying in the freezing cold with both legs fractured after a motorcycle accident - shows there is need for reform and housecleaning in public agencies where regard for the public may be the last thing on civil servants' minds.

Zhang, from Hengyang City, had a fight with his father and decided to leave his house March 3.

A few days afterward, on the night of March 7, Zhang apparently took a walk along National Highway 107. It was shortly after 9 pm when things took a terrible turn from bad to worse. The college-degree holder who had no job was mowed down by a man driving a motorcycle. Yet, like the authorities, the hit-and-run cyclist didn't care enough about Zhang to lift a finger to help him, and fled the accident site.

According to a media report, a good Samaritan named Peng Shuping came to Zhang's aid just after the incident. Peng immediately called the county police hotline to seek assistance, but officials gave him the brush-off, referring him instead to the county's "traffic police."

Peng telephoned them, but again got nowhere. He was given yet another number for the town's traffic police. He called three times but no one answered.

Peng must have dialed a wrong number, police said, since there are no records showing a call was received. More likely, the officers were out enjoying a long dinner and left no one behind to answer the phone.

Along with another man who runs a bicycle repair shop nearby, Peng moved Zhang under a roadside tree. They covered him with dried leaves and grass and went home. In hindsight, they should have been more persistent. But perhaps they are not sophisticated and believed the authorities somehow, some way, would rescue Zhang.

The next morning, Luo Dongmei, 60, found the desperate Zhang drinking water from a dirty rice paddy. So Luo found a village clinician named Jiang Donglin. He bandaged Zhang, who gave the doctor his home number.

Jiang said he went to the town's police station, about two kilometres from the accident site, to inform the town's police officer Guo Xuejun about the accident and Zhang's terrible condition.

But rather than send anyone to assist the young man, unbelievably, Guo again called the county. And again the county police didn't send officers to the scene, but called the traffic police. Later, a county spokesman said a traffic officer was finally dispatched to take a look but he didn't spot Zhang.

Of course not: Zhang was probably lying in agony near a rice paddy.

Dr Jiang said he also told Wang Qingwen, head of the Cha'ensi Town civil affairs office, about Zhang's situation. Wang allegedly told Jiang to call his office after "Zhang dies". Wang denies he made the statement.

Jiang then called Zhang's home on March 8 but got no answer.

Over the next few days, local villagers said they had no trouble finding Zhang, delivering him food and a raincoat.

Did the traffic police officer even get out of his car to look for Zhang? During this time, it rained and the temperatures plunged to as low as minus 3 degrees centigrade. Zhang never had a chance in such weather. He was found five days later, still on the side of the road, frozen to death. No public official, no civil servant, no one paid from the taxes collected by the government, no representative of the people of China, ever cared to even visit him. Not one time.

If the accounts of a young man's death are true, then some civil servants in Xiangtan County must face justice. There was serious dereliction of duty here, or worse.

And Zhang's family is now suing Xiangtan County traffic and civil affairs authorities, looking for answers. Xiangtan Public Security Bureau officials say they have started an investigation.

But that is like asking a fox to guard a henhouse. This investigation should be conducted by Hunan Province prosecutors, not the local bureaucrats who committed the wrongdoing.