Beijing Subway Commuter Crushed; Compensated RMB 260K

A Beijing man who received a critical spine injury during a subway commute will have to settle for a compromise after a local court ruled there was "no subjective fault" in the incident that left him paralyzed.

A Changping District court awarded 260,000 yuan in compensation to 57-year-old plaintiff Wang Tao (pseudonym) after he was critically injured by other commuters when trying to board a subway in 2014.

The court decided that even though the two companies that operate the Beijing Metro did not directly cause Wang's injuries, they are still responsible for providing the city's commuters with a "rational degree of safety." The judge presiding over the case ruled that because the Beijing Metro knows there is a higher passenger volume during the morning rush hour when the incident occurred, it should have implemented safety protocols to protect its passengers.

With no one blamed for the entirety of the incident, the Beijing Metro was ruled responsible for paying just one-fifth of the 1.9 million yuan in damages that Wang had initially sued for.

Wang lost consciousness after he was pushed into a door while boarding the subway at Tiantongyuan North Station during the morning rush hour back in January 2014. A subway employee finally came to help Wang three stops later at Lishuiqiao Station after no one on the crowded train came forward to help him.

Wang suffered a cervical spinal cord concussion, an injury exacerbated by his cervical spondylosis (a chronic condition of age-related spinal deterioration). Because of the injury, Wang is now classified as suffering from level-four paralysis.

The defendants had argued in court that the Beijing Metro already provided adequate safety measures to subway commuters in the form of public broadcast safety warnings. Furthermore, the Beijing Metro argued that it holds a special role in society for "serving the public's interest" and is not responsible for Wang's injuries.

"The carrier (Beijing Metro) is only responsible for the transport of commuters in exchange for their transportation, and does not serve as a bodyguard for commuters," lawyers for the Beijing Metro argued during the trial. "The carrier does not have any special obligation to protect the personal safety of passengers."

Other commuters injured by packed crowds on the Beijing Metro have found limited success by taking the Beijing Metro to court, usually resulting in compromised settlements for the plaintiff that don't find fault with the defendants.

A Shijingshan District court found the Beijing Metro to be 10 percent responsible after a Beijing woman had her leg broken during the morning rush at Pingguoyuan Station on Line 1 back in 2014. Ms Shao had to settle for just 5,136 yuan in compensation, a tenth of the 54,000 yuan in damages she initially sued for.

A man named Zhu who had several of his ribs broken while trying to board a Batong Line train at Sihui Station was awarded 20,000 yuan in compensation in 2015, a far cry from the 170,000 yuan in damages he initially sued for.

Besides being awarded just a fraction of their initial claims, these three cases also share another similarity. Tiantongyuan North, Pingguoyuan, and Sihui Station are all terminal stations on their respective subway lines. Trains entering each of these stations will be empty, causing a mad scramble between competing passengers who want to secure a seat for themselves.

Beijing subway stations have made attempts to control the massive passenger volume that flood its trains everyday. Sihui Station constructed "passenger speed bumps" (shown above) positioned at the entrance to each train door back in 2010 as a way to slow the rate of passenger boarding while Tiantongyuan North has become infamous for the "labyrinth" it built in 2013 that holds the queue for passengers waiting to cross its security checkpoint (shown below).

But considering these halfway settlements, these plaintiffs are lucky to be getting anything at all. Previous litigation against the Beijing Metro resulted in no compensation whatsoever.

In September 2005, the Dongcheng district court rejected a case by an 88-year-old Beijing man named Dai who sued the Beijing Metro after he suffered broken bones during a crowded commute. The court ruled the accident was "beyond the scope of the defendant's ability to prevent or stop the damage."

Images: news.163.com, China.com.cn, news.Hexun.com, Xinhua, news.Xiancn.com, GDAFXH.org, China Youth Daily

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