Legal analysis of compensation for passengers who died in a bus crash in Wanzhou, Chongqing
Published:
2018-11-05
重庆万州公交坠江原因公布后，在网上引起一片哗然，一个简单的坐过了站，让十几个无辜的生命被画上了句号，一场琐碎的纷争，拉着十几名无辜的乘客“陪葬”。教训之惨重，让人不敢直视。乘客刘某和司机冉某的互殴行为造成重大人员伤亡，两人的行为严重危害公共安全，触犯刑法115条之规定，构成犯罪。但因两位已经在本次事故中死亡，刑事责任主体已经丧失，本文仅仅探讨事故背后的死亡乘客赔偿问题。
一、 死亡乘客家属可向公交公司主张违约或侵权责任
乘客乘坐公交公司的公交车，双方形成客运合同关系，公交公司应当依法履行其合同义务在约定期间内将乘客安全送达目的地，在运输过程中，应确保行车安全。本案中，公交公司司机冉某在驾驶途中与乘客刘某互殴导致车辆失控坠入江中，致使车内乘客死亡。死亡乘客家属可依据《合同法》第302条规定“承运人应当对运输过程中旅客的伤亡承担损害赔偿责任，但伤亡是旅客自身健康原因造成的或者承运人证明伤亡是旅客故意、重大过失造成的除外”要求公交公司承担违约责任。
冉某作为公交车驾驶人员，在驾驶公交车行进中，与乘客刘某发生争吵，遭遇刘某攻击后，应当认识到还击及抓扯行为会严重危害车辆行驶安全，但未采取有效措施确保行车安全，将右手放开方向盘还击刘某，后又用右手格挡刘某的攻击，并与刘某抓扯，其行为严重违反公交车驾驶人职业规定，最终造成惨案，侵害了同车乘客的生命安全权益。根据《侵权责任法》第2条“侵害民事权益，应当依照本法承担侵权责任。本法所称民事权益，包括生命权、健康权、姓名权、名誉权、荣誉权、肖像权、隐私权、婚姻自主权、监护权、所有权、用益物权、担保物权、著作权、专利权、商标专用权、发现权、股权、继承权等人身、财产权益。”及第34条规定“用人单位的工作人员因执行工作任务造成他人损害的，由用人单位承担侵权责任。”因此，死亡乘客家属也可向司机冉某所属的公交公司主张侵权赔偿。公交公司赔偿后可向冉某继承人在冉某遗产范围内进行追偿。
二、死亡乘客家属可向乘客刘某遗产继承人在刘某遗产范围内主张侵权赔偿责任
A report on the cause of the accident investigation showed that "at 09:35, passenger Liu got on the bus at Sijihuacheng Station in Longdu Square, and his destination was No. 1 Home Pavilion Station. Due to road maintenance and diversion, No. 22 bus no longer runs through No. 1 Home Pavilion Station. When the bus arrived at Nanbin Park Station, the driver Ran Mou reminded the passengers of No.1 Home Pavilion to get off at this station, but Liu Mou did not get off. When the car continued to drive, Liu found that the car had passed his destination station and asked to get off, but there was no bus stop there, and the driver ran did not stop. At 10:3:32, Liu got up from his seat and walked to the right back side of Ran, who was driving, and leaned on the armrest column next to Ran to accuse Ran. Ran turned his head many times to explain and quarrel with Liu. The dispute between the two sides gradually escalated, and each other had offensive language. At 10:08:49, when the car drove to the second Wanzhou Yangtze River Bridge 348 meters away from the head of the South Bridge, Liu held a mobile phone in his right hand and hit ran on the right side of his head. At 10:08:50, ran released his right hand and returned fire with his steering wheel. He hit Liu in the neck with a sideways fist. Later, Liu hit Ran's shoulder with his mobile phone again. Ran blocked with his right hand and grabbed Liu's right upper arm. At 10:08:51, Ran took back his right hand and slammed to the left with his right hand (the vehicle speed was 51 kilometers per hour), causing the vehicle to lose control and deviate from the center solid line to the left, and the opposite red car (the vehicle speed was 58 kilometers per hour) After colliding, he rushed to the edge of the road, broke the guardrail and fell into the river." As a passenger, Liu quarreled with the bus driver who was driving and attacked the driver twice with his mobile phone, committing acts that endanger the safety of the vehicle, while as a bus driver, ran quarreled with the passenger Liu and knew that he still fought back against Liu while driving. It was the passenger and the driver who fought each other that caused the vehicle to lose control and fall into the river, and the common behavior of both sides contributed to the tragedy. According to Article 8 of the the People's Republic of China Tort Liability Law, "If two or more people jointly commit a tort and cause damage to others, they shall bear joint and several liability". Article 11: "If two or more persons separately commit a tort that causes the same damage, and each person's tort is sufficient to cause all the damage, the perpetrator shall be jointly and severally liable." And the first paragraph of Article 3 of the interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the application of law in the trial of cases of compensation for personal injury, "if two or more persons cause damage with joint intention or joint negligence, or although there is no joint intention or joint negligence, if the infringement directly occurs with the same damage consequence, it constitutes a joint infringement, and shall bear joint and several liability in accordance with Article 130 of the general principles of civil law." According to the regulations, there are clear provisions for the actor to bear joint and several liability. In this case, the driver Ran and the passenger Liu did not commit a joint tort that caused the death of the passenger when the bus fell into the river, nor was the tort of each of the two parties sufficient to cause all the damage, it is the result of the indirect combination of the driver Ran Mou knowing that his retaliatory behavior will endanger the safety of the vehicle and failing to take effective measures to avoid safety risks and the indirect combination of the passenger Liu Mou's two attacks on Ran Mou and the gross negligence of the behavior endangering the safety of the vehicle, which led to the death of the passenger. Therefore, according to Article 12 of the Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China, "Two or more people separately commit torts and cause the same damage, each bears the corresponding responsibility, it is difficult to determine the size of the responsibility, the average liability." And the second paragraph of Article 3 of the interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the application of law in the trial of cases of compensation for personal injury, "if two or more persons have no joint intention or joint negligence, but several acts carried out separately indirectly combine to cause the same damage consequence, they shall bear the corresponding liability for compensation according to the size of the fault or the proportion of the cause." According to the regulations, the driver Ran and the passenger Liu shall bear the corresponding liability for the damage to the death of the passenger according to the size of the fault or the proportion of the cause. The tort liability of the driver ran mou is borne by the bus company to which he belongs, which has been pointed out earlier and will not be repeated here. Because the passenger Liu has died, the amount of compensation borne by Liu should be limited to the actual value of Liu's estate.
事件已经发生，我们没有办法去改变这个结果。乘客与司机发生争执造成事故的事件，这并不是第一次。除了愤怒，我们能做的还有反思，希望这样的事情永远不再发生。
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