Research On Several Issues In Traffic Accident Management

In recent years, the death toll and the amount of property lost in trafficaccident in China have remained fairly high traffic safety has attracted wideattention from the society. According to the regulations in Safety Law Of TheRoad Traffic, the traffic accident are supposed to be handled by the trafficadministration branch of public security department. In the process of trafficaccident management, the parties concerned with the accident will be highlyinterested in whether the accident can be justly handled because themanagement result has a significant impact on the civil compensations,disciplinary sanctions or the criminal sanctions. In practice, however, there arealways some factors that may affect the traffic accident management, as manylinks are involved in the accidents management process. Based on histheoretical study of China's Administration Law, the author makes an analysisand probe into the current links that potentially lead to the mismanagement oftraffic accident, expecting that the traffic accident management can beeffectively supervised and that the judiciary departments can improve theirpractice and reconsider such issues. The thesis is composed of four chapters:Chapter One is an observation into the basic theory of traffic accidentmanagement behaviors. First of all, the author defines traffic accident andtraffic accident management. The definition of traffic accident is thetheoretical base for the entire traffic accident management. Based on theAmerican and Japanese definitions for traffic accident, and on the practicalexperience, traffic accident is defined as "the event of personal injury orproperty loss caused by the on-road vehicles' faults or accidents." A trafficaccident has four key elements, namely vehicle, road, fault or accidents, anddamages. The analysis into the key elements of traffic accident is for the sakeof a timely and accurate accident judgment made by the traffic administrationdepartments so that the liabilities of the parties concerned can be objectivelyidentified as a foundation for the compensation and punishment. An accurateunderstanding of the traffic accident's key elements is the basis of a fair andobjective traffic accident management. Secondly, the connation expansion oftraffic accident in China results in a situation that the old definition for trafficaccident management fails to meet the new demands of Safety Law Of TheRoad Traffic whether in form or in content. In line with Safety Law Of TheRoad Traffic, the author summarizes the traffic accident management behavioras "a series of administrative activities legally taken by the trafficadministrative departments for public security in the process of the trafficaccident management, such as accidents investigations, liability identification,punishing the liability-takers, coordinating with the parties concerned ondamage compensations, etc. On this foundation, the features of traffic accidentmanagement are further summarized as follows: administrative activities,one-sided intention, specific situations, indirect law effect, neutral position andprofessional standard. Furthermore, because traffic accident management is akind of administrative behaviors, its operation is surely related to the basicconcepts of administration. According to the basic principles of administrationlaw, the author makes an in-depth exploration into the connotation and formsof such principles as openness, fairness and efficiency in traffic accidentmanagement.Chapter Two deals with the defects of the Traffic Accident Verification,and proposes several improvement methods. Traffic Accident verificationrefers to the written report made, after a scientific investigation into thespecific issues of the traffic accident, by the exclusive verification staff, whoare entrusted by the transport administration branch of public securitydepartment or by the parties concerned with the accident, serving as atestimony to the case facts. The report is one of traffic accident proofs and it isa verified result in the field of evidence study. As an important legalfoundation for the transport management department to identify the basic factsof the traffic accident, to analyze the causes of the accidents and to define theobligations of the parties concerned, the proof plays a vital role in trafficaccident management. As one of the important proofs to make the finalidentification of the responsibilities in the accidents, the verification report isincreasingly applied in the management of traffic accident. The proofsobtained through scientific channels also win high attention from the publicsecurity departments and the judicial organs. First, we are lack of universaland feasible verification rules and judicial interpretations. Second, there aretoo many traffic accident verification organs, which make it difficult to workout a neutral and just report. Third, the verification staff is made up of peoplewith various social backgrounds and at different professional levels. Fourth,each profession and department has its own verification rules and there is not aunified regulation for the verification standards and procedure. Fifth, duringthe verification period, the rights of judgment, execution and qualification arenot effectively monitored. In line with the existent defects of the TrafficAccident Verification, the author proposes four measures for reform andimprovement. First, some relevant laws are to be improved. The qualificationrules for the traffic accident verification staff shall be implemented so as torestrain the post qualification, verification rights, assistance duties, andresponsibilities investigation. Second, a reasonable traffic accident verificationorgan shall be established and a scientific traffic accident verification is to beset up. Third, we shall improve the evidence obtaining procedure in trafficaccident verification and identify the efficiency of the verification report.Fourth, we shall establish a monitoring system for traffic accident verificationand the transport management department is to supervise the verificationprocess.Chapter Three is an analysis of the existent defects of traffic accidentverification in China and an exploration into their relief ways. The verificationof traffic accident is a series of special activities in the process of trafficaccident management that traffic administration departments analyze andidentify the evidence they have obtained, define their objective relations to theaccidents and make a judgment to the basic facts and causes of the accidentsand to the duties of the parties concerned. As a part of the traffic accidentmanagement, verification plays a very important role in the managementprocess. Only when we make the judgment according to the real situation, canwe legally punish those who are responsible for the accident so as to protectthe legal rights of the parties concerned and maintain the national interests. Inreal life, however, there exist a lot of problems in our traffic accidentverification, which not only exerts a significant impact on the legal rights ofthe parties concerned, but also questions the justice in the operation of thetransport management department. First, we are lack of strict examination tothe post qualification of the accidents verification staff, which makes itdifficult to conduct a fair verification. Second, the practice of verification istoo rash as the one-time verification is considered as the final judgment.Finally, the traffic accident management departments are not able to taketimely and efficient relief measures to protect the legal rights of the partiesconcerned. In order to solve these problems, the author maintains that arelevant judicial relief system shall be established as soon as possible, and theverification of traffic accident shall be included in administrative litigationcases. In view of the legislation goals of administrative litigation and thecurrent legal regulations in China, and in light of the court's current judgmentcapacities and the protection of the parties concerned, it is feasible to bringtraffic accident verification into the administrative litigation cases.Chapter Four mainly deals with Traffic Accident Duty Ascription. Theidentification of duties is what the traffic accident management aims at. InU.S.A., Germany, Japan and France, unblamable duty principle has beenconsidered as a basic principle for traffic accident management. In China,however, traffic accident duty ascription is either blamable or unblamable,which was once a big divergence in legislation. In the final analysis, thedivergence of the two arguments lies in whether the motor vehicles shall takemore duties of attention. After analyzing the reasons for the changes of thetraffic accident duty ascription in China, the author denounces the practice oftalking over punishment according to the duties and the implementation ofblamable duty ascription. Starting with the goal of legislation, the authormakes an illustration of the validity of unblamable duty ascription adopted inSafety Law Of The Road Traffic so as to protect the victims of the trafficaccident.