In Hubei Xiaogan, a woman fell while riding an electric bike with one hand on the handlebar and later called the police. The traffic police determined that the driver of a car about six to seven meters away from her needed to take responsibility. This news made it to the hot searches on August 11 and sparked discussions.
On August 6, a netizen named “Yang Yang” from Xiaogan, Hubei, shared a video from a dashcam online. The video showed that around 3 pm on July 27, while driving on a certain road in the urban area, a woman was riding towards him on an electric bike with one hand and fell at a pile of sand and stones about six to seven meters in front of his car.
The video depicted the road where the incident occurred as narrow, with houses on both sides. There was a small pile of sand and stones on the left front of “Yang Yang’s” vehicle, and miscellaneous items were stacked on the right side of the road base.
Later, the woman called the police. According to the road traffic accident identification document issued by the police, “Yang Yang” was assigned secondary responsibility for the traffic accident.
On August 10, “Yang Yang” told a reporter from Red Star News that he did not expect to be held responsible, so he did not stop the car after the woman fell. Later, the traffic police found him and determined that “Yang Yang” was at secondary fault.
“Yang Yang” stated that the reason the traffic police department held him at secondary fault was, “I did not give way to the other party.” He has not yet seen the hospital bill and does not know how much money he has to compensate the other party, but he has applied for a review with the traffic police department, and the result will only come out after 30 working days.
As non-contact traffic accident judgments and liabilities are increasing in China, this news only on Baidu’s website has sparked discussions among hundreds of netizens.
In the analysis of netizens, some express dissatisfaction with the driver being held responsible even at a distance of six to seven meters, deeming it too exaggerated. Some believe that the driver should have yielded to the electric bike. Others think that the person who stacked the sand and stones on the road should bear primary responsibility. Some netizens speculate that with sand and stones on the road, making the road slippery, the car owner riding with one hand should bear full responsibility.
Netizen “Xiao Xiao Shu Tong 007” believes, “Non-contact traffic accident judgments must be meticulous, starting from objective conditions, not just listening to one side, otherwise accidents that are hundreds of meters away, three hundred meters, one kilometer away can turn into non-contact safety accidents and one must be cautious of fraudulent actions like setting up accidents for compensation under non-contact accidents.”