Parabolic objects from high altitude not only threaten the personal safety of citizens, but also pollute the ecological environment and endanger public order, and must be treated.
Xu Junzuo (Xinhua News Agency)
For some time, falling objects from high altitude have caused frequent casualties, threatening people's lives and property safety and arousing great public concern. The editorial department of this newspaper has received letters from some readers, who are looking forward to strengthening governance while expressing their concerns and making suggestions.
how to intensify efforts to control parabolic falling objects from high altitude and protect the public's "overhead safety"? The reporter interviewed legal experts from china law society, universities and legal workers from practical departments to respond to readers' concerns.
Public security organs should look for the perpetrators as soon as possible after a tall building is injured by a parabolic object.
Cui Liangping, a reader from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, said in his letter that he was really not at ease about his "safety overhead": he lived on the first floor and often saw all kinds of things thrown from upstairs, and the glass was broken twice in two months. Sometimes children are playing in the yard on the first floor, and small stones, walnuts and other sundries fall upstairs.
As small as fruit stones and plastic bottles, as large as flower pots and billboards, many objects may become sharp weapons to hurt people once they fall from the sky.
how serious is the problem of falling objects from high altitude? Wu Zhaoxiang, deputy director of the the Supreme People's Court Research Office, explained with a set of data: "In the three years from 2116 to 2118, there were more than 1,211 civil cases of falling objects from high altitude, and nearly 31% of these more than 1,211 cases were caused by falling objects from high altitude. Personal injury; The number of criminal cases accepted was 31, and more than 51% of these 31 cases caused the death of the victim. " In fact, only a small part of the cases entered the litigation field.
"I want to talk, but I don't know who to talk to." Xu Long, a reader in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, expressed the helplessness of many victims. For example, he said that in July this year, the top window of his private car was broken by a stone. He believes that this part was smashed, which may only be caused by falling objects from high altitude, but the location where he parked happened to be in the blind spot of monitoring. "The monitoring didn't take a picture of which one was thrown, and no one took the initiative to admit it. How can I check the responsible person?"
"The biggest problem now is that it is difficult to find out the responsible person in time. First, the parties' ability to provide evidence is limited. Second, the relevant authorities need to cooperate in time to find out the responsible person in various ways." Shi Hong, deputy director of the Civil Law Office of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) Law Commission, said.
It is also the voice of many readers to let the relevant authorities cooperate in time to find the responsible person. Liang Zhenguang, a reader in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, said in his letter: "The cost of the parabolic accident is asymmetric with the cost of the victim's proof. Nowadays, high-rise residential buildings are very common, and there are many households. It is too difficult for ordinary residents to find offenders one by one. I hope that the public security organs can intervene in time. "
"Article 87 of the Tort Liability Law stipulates that if it is difficult to determine the specific infringer because of the damage caused by articles thrown from buildings or articles falling from buildings, the law stipulates that, except those who can prove that they are not infringers, the users of the buildings who may have caused the damage shall be compensated." Wang Liming, vice president of china law society, president of the Civil Law Research Association and executive vice president of China Renmin University, analyzed that "it is difficult to determine the specific infringer", which often makes people mistakenly think that the obligation to determine the specific infringer is borne by the victim. This will cause the relevant authorities to stop taking care of it after the victim files a civil lawsuit and no longer involves criminal issues, which is not conducive to the protection of the victim.
In reality, many cases face such a dilemma. Not long ago, one or two-year-old girls in Zhengzhou were injured by a milk bottle thrown upstairs. Ms. Li, the mother of the child, asked 21 families that the perpetrator was not found, saying that if the perpetrator was not found, she would sue the owner of the whole building.
how can the real infringer be punished by law? Wang Liming said, "In the case of damage caused by throwing objects from high buildings, criminal offences are usually involved. It is the duty of public security departments and other institutions to identify the specific infringer. Public security organs and other institutions have the obligation to identify the perpetrator in time according to the law, so as to investigate the responsibility of the perpetrator according to law, and the perpetrator will make compensation to the victim. In the Tort Liability Compilation of the Civil Code, it is suggested to increase the stipulation that after parabolic damage caused by tall buildings, the relevant authorities should first identify the perpetrators in time. "
The property should eliminate all kinds of potential safety hazards in time, and bear corresponding responsibilities if it is dereliction of duty.
The lack of due diligence in property management is also one of the reasons for the frequent occurrence of falling objects from high altitude. Liu Yuanfei, a reader from Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, told this newspaper that the residents upstairs often throw objects at high altitude. After he reported to the property, there was only a leaflet prohibiting throwing objects at high altitude downstairs, and the situation did not really improve.
Sun Yun, a reader from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, is full of bitterness when he talks about the problem that the property is not used or used. "Several times when I was at work, I watched the full garbage bags fall from the upstairs. I have reflected it with the property several times, but the problem has not been solved. "
what role should the property service companies that are closely related to the residents play when they encounter falling objects from high altitude? "House owners and property service enterprises shall, in accordance with the property service contract, timely perform the obligations of maintenance, conservation and management of houses and supporting facilities and related sites, and earnestly safeguard the environmental sanitation and related order in the property management area." The relevant person in charge of china law society said that property service enterprises should do their duty, stop illegal activities such as throwing objects at high altitude in time, assist in safety precautions and take emergency measures in time for safety accidents.
"The phenomenon of falling objects mostly occurs in residential areas. If the residential property is entrusted to a property service enterprise for management, the property service enterprise has the obligation to maintain the basic order of the residential area and protect the owner's personal or property safety according to the property service contract or relevant legislation." Wang Yuanzhi, a professor at the Law School of Shanxi University, analyzed that the property management regulations made it clear that property service enterprises should assist in the security work within the property management area.
"Unfortunately, if a property service enterprise fails to fulfill its security obligations or take reasonable measures to protect the owner's personal and property safety, whether it should bear the responsibility and what kind of responsibility it should bear is not clearly stipulated in the above legislation." Wang Yuanzhi believes that the property management system should be improved, and the property service enterprises should bear the supplementary liability for compensation when the person responsible for falling objects from high altitude is unknown.
"At present, the service quality and service awareness of property management companies as a whole are still insufficient. The scope of responsibility of property service units should be further clarified and enlarged. " Gao Zicheng, president of the Beijing Lawyers Association, said that unless the property company fulfilled its legal obligations, contractual obligations and duty of care.
Wang Liming believes that property services companies should bear corresponding supplementary responsibilities if they violate their due security obligations, regardless of whether the perpetrator can be identified or not. For example, he introduced that if the wall skin in the public area is in danger of falling off or falling, the property service enterprise failed to eliminate the hidden danger in time, resulting in damage to the wall skin, and the property service enterprise failed to fulfill its security obligations and should bear the responsibility; Another example is that the monitoring probe was not turned on when the accident occurred, and the property service enterprise was also at fault.
There is no shortage of legal and technical means to prevent falling objects from high altitude.
Many readers said that ordinary residents want to take precautions in advance to reduce the occurrence of falling objects from high altitude and avoid personal and property losses. Xue Weimin, a reader in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, believes that "a perfect video surveillance system is the most direct means, which can play a strong deterrent role and make it easier for victims to fix evidence."
In a residential area in Hangzhou, in order to prevent throwing objects at high altitude, we explored the technical defense, installed 47 special wide-angle cameras, and included the windows and balconies of the whole building in the shooting range. This move was supported by the residents of the community.
Many legal workers also said that we should further speed up the construction of the "discerning project", promote the networking application of public security video surveillance, implement the "technical defense into the home" project, and make full use of technical means to do a good job in fixing and retaining evidence in cases of falling objects from high altitude; At the same time, towns (streets) and communities should give full play to the important role of grid service management, strengthen the publicity of relevant laws and regulations for residents, and timely investigate and rectify relevant security risks.
"The windows, balconies and the distance between the road edge and the building are directly related to the possibility of falling objects and whether it will hurt pedestrians on the road. At present, the relevant design codes in China only pay attention to the design of the space and function of the house, but fail to fully consider the safety of the house." Wang Yuanzhi suggested that scientific and reasonable architectural design standards should be formulated to block the source of falling objects.
Perfecting relevant laws is also the unanimous view of many readers. Zuo Chongnian, a reader from Hefei City, Anhui Province, wrote that it is necessary to strengthen legal regulation, clarify the nature of parabolic falling objects from high altitude, and increase the illegal cost. Xu Long also believes that "if people who throw things downstairs know that their actions violate the law and it is difficult to escape the corresponding punishment, they will certainly restrain themselves."
Ma Huaide, president of china law society Administrative Law Research Association and president of China University of Political Science and Law, said that although falling objects from high altitude is a social problem in recent years, one of the important reasons is the lack of legal regulation. Although there are cases of civil tort compensation for falling objects from high altitude decided by the court, most of them focus on the distribution of civil liability. However, this kind of civil precedent can not effectively solve the problem, especially can not prevent the parabolic problem at high altitude.
to protect the public's "overhead safety", both technical and legal means are indispensable. "In the legislative process of the Civil Code, more targeted provisions should be made on objects falling from high altitude: in the amendment of the Criminal Law, the act of' throwing objects from high altitude' should be punished as a criminal offence on the premise of clarifying the conditions such as the type, weight and throwing height of the objects." Legal experts suggested.