Recently, a page of news caused heated discussions, a student at Ludong University in Yantai, Shandong Province, was hit by a falling ice pick and suffered a serious head injury. After the incident, the student was taken to the hospital for treatment. The hospital said that the student died of severe head injury after resuscitation. The incident has raised many topics, including the need to improve the risk prevention awareness and ability of college students, and how to enhance public safety. In this article, I would like to ask who bears this responsibility from a legal point of view?
Whether this case is characterized as an accident or a tort depends on the nature of the case, and the subject and method of liability will be different.
In the case of accidents, in civil law, "accidents" generally refer to unforeseeable, unavoidable, and insurmountable events, which objectively cause harmful consequences, but are not intentional or negligent, but occur accidentally.
If an accident causes damage, it is generally sufficient to compensate appropriately. However, in the criminal law, only those expressly stipulated, such as negligence causing injury and negligence causing death, can be held responsible.
If for some reason the perpetrator fails to take the necessary precautions, or is negligent in acting, then he may be held liable. In this case, the relevant managers and users of the ice picks that fell from the building were responsible and could not be simply characterized as an accident.
According to Article 1253 of China's Civil Code"If a building, structure or other facility and its shelving or hanging object falls off or falls, causing damage to others, and the owner, manager or user cannot prove that he or she is not at fault, he shall bear tort liability." After the owner, manager or user makes compensation, if there are other responsible persons, they have the right to recover from the other responsible persons. ”
In this case, although the ice picks left behind after the snow in winter are generally not deliberately hung by humans, they are a kind of natural hanging objects, and they are all part of the relevant buildings, and the owners, managers or users of the buildings have the obligation to clean the ice picks on the outer wall in a timely manner, or set up safety warning signs or take safety measures at the location of the ice picks to prevent others from being harmed. According to the public information, the school or the property management company is the owner, manager or user of the building, and if it fails to fulfill the relevant responsibilities, it should bear legal responsibility according to the specific circumstances. If the college student is at fault, the liability of the infringer can be reduced.