A county-level judge has been suspended after he admitted "blurred vision" caused him to give a lenient sentence to a truck driver who crashed into a family sedan and killed three people, CCTV reported Wednesday.

The court heard how defendant Yang Xinhua crashed his heavy truck into Zhang Liqiang's family sedan on a highway in Henan province in September 2011, killing three members of his family.

According to Chinese law, Yang should have been sentenced to three to seven years in prison, but Judge Shui Tao only sentenced Yang to two years after he claimed to have paid 900,000 yuan ($133,828) in compensation to the victim's family.

But Zhang said he never receive a cent from Yang and a report given to the court by Hubin District Court Judge Zhai Ermin confirmed no payment had been made.

Judge Shui pleaded that his eyes blurred when making the ruling and is now under investigation.

Yang's sentence has been increased to three and a half years, according to the report.