[ Title 】 ： Ren Jianhong

[ Keywords 】 ： Civil lawsuit incidental to traffic accident

[ Key points for referees 】 ： Defendant in the accompanying civil lawsuit Wang × Hai After causing the accident, the driver fled the scene. It was 20 minutes later that a passerby discovered the victim and reported the incident to the police. The road where the accident occurred is relatively remote, and there were no video surveillance cameras at the scene, making it impossible to directly reconstruct and ascertain the objective, basic facts of the incident based on video footage from the crime scene. Since the defendant did not turn himself in to the public security authorities until noon the following day—fifteen hours after the accident—the defendant’s venous blood sample was taken only then; the “Ethanol Examination Report” showed no detectable ethanol levels. However, the statements recorded during the investigation, the testimonies of other witnesses, and the defendant’s own admissions during the trial all corroborated each other, confirming that the defendant had consumed a small amount of alcohol. By comparing the time of the accident as recorded in the “Account of the Defendant’s Surrender” and the “Source of the Case” issued by the traffic police department with the time recorded by the 120 Emergency Medical Center when it arrived at the scene to provide rescue and performed an electrocardiogram monitoring of the victim, the evidence in the case file fails to prove that the victim died at the scene immediately after the accident—that is, the victim had already died by the time the defendant fled the scene. Whether the above-mentioned criminal conduct of the defendant constitutes hit-and-run after a traffic accident, and how to determine the sentencing starting point and aggravating or mitigating circumstances in sentencing, are key issues in the criminal judgment portion of this case, and they also have certain implications for the mediation efforts in the accompanying civil litigation.

Although the victim had agricultural household registration, ample evidence confirms that the victim was a project manager dispatched by a certain urban construction company to Shenyang and permanently stationed at the Shenyang project office. The victim held an intermediate-level professional technical title as a construction engineer, and both the victim’s habitual residence and primary source of income were located in an urban area. In the criminal judgment with accompanying civil proceedings, the death compensation portion was calculated according to urban standards; the court should uphold this calculation in accordance with the law.

[ Basic Facts of the Case 】 ： At around 9:10 p.m. on April 9, 2016, in Shenyang City... 200 meters north of the intersection of ×× Street and ×× Road in ×× District, The defendant While driving a Toyota Jeep with license plate Liao ××× from south to north, Wang ×hai was involved in a traffic accident with the victim, pedestrian Xu ×zhang, resulting in Xu ×zhang’s death at the scene and damage to the vehicle. After the accident occurred, Wang ×hai... Driving away from the scene, as determined. Wang × Hai bears full responsibility for the accident; Xu × Zhang bears no responsibility.

[ Referee's decision 】I. The Defendant Wang × Hai was convicted of the crime of traffic accident and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, with a three-year suspended sentence (the period of probation shall be calculated from the date the judgment becomes final).

II. The defendant in the ancillary civil lawsuit, the Shenyang Branch of a Certain Property Insurance Co., Ltd., shall compensate the plaintiffs in the ancillary civil lawsuit, Xing × Ying, Xu × Bo, and Xu × Yan, with death compensation in the amount of RMB 110,000. This sum shall be paid in full within 10 days from the date on which this judgment becomes legally effective.

【Reason for Ruling】: The defendant Wang × Hai violated traffic safety regulations by driving a motor vehicle, resulting in the death of one person. He bears full responsibility for the accident and fled the scene. His actions constitute the crime of traffic accident causing death, and he should be punished according to law. The defendant voluntarily turned himself in and truthfully confessed his crimes, thus qualifying as a self-surrender, and may therefore receive a lighter punishment in accordance with the law. Furthermore, the defendant has actively provided compensation and obtained the understanding of the victim’s family, which may also warrant a more lenient sentence at the court’s discretion.

【Relevant Statutes】 Article 133, Article 167, Paragraph 1, Article 72, Paragraph 1, Article 73, Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China; Article 16 and Article 48 of the Tort Liability Law of the People’s Republic of China.

[Lawyer’s Viewpoint] 1. Regarding the conviction and sentencing in this case. The evidence currently available in the case file does not prove that the victim died at the scene immediately upon the occurrence of the accident—that is, the victim had already died by the time the defendant fled the scene in his vehicle. The defendant’s own statement confirms that he did indeed witness the collision but failed to get out of the car to check on the injured person’s condition or take any rescue measures whatsoever; instead, he drove away from the scene. Based on procedural documents issued by the public security authorities, the medical records from the emergency medical center, and combined with the defendant’s statement, it is established that after causing the traffic accident in question, the defendant was well aware that the accident occurred in a relatively remote area, far from busy main roads, and that at the time of the accident, there were very few vehicles and pedestrians passing by on the street. Despite this knowledge, the defendant made no active efforts to provide assistance to the victim and fled the scene precisely in order to evade legal accountability. As a direct result of this failure to render aid, the victim ultimately died due to lack of timely medical attention. According to the facts established by the above-mentioned evidence, in accordance with Article 133 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, the defendant’s conduct has legally constituted the crime of traffic accident causing death. Furthermore, pursuant to Paragraph 1, Item (1) and Article 5 of the “Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Specific Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Criminal Cases Involving Traffic Accidents” (hereinafter referred to as the “Interpretation”), the defendant’s criminal behavior and the circumstances of the crime, when analyzed comprehensively and holistically from both subjective and objective perspectives, should be classified as causing death through fleeing the scene—rather than as the ordinary case of fleeing the scene following a traffic accident as stipulated in Article 3 of the “Interpretation.”

2. Regarding the items, standards, and amounts of ancillary civil compensation:

First, the relevant evidence submitted by the plaintiff in the ancillary civil lawsuit during the trial proves that... The victim’s habitual residence and primary source of income were both in an urban area. According to the “Reply from the First Civil Division of the Supreme People’s Court Regarding the Calculation of Compensation for Injuries or Deaths Resulting from Traffic Accidents Sustained by Rural Residents Whose Habitual Residence is in Urban Areas,” compensation for the victim’s death and other related damages should be calculated based on the relevant standards applicable to urban residents in the local area. Secondly, reasonable expenses incurred by the victim’s relatives in handling funeral arrangements constitute statutorily compensable items. Although these expenses include round-trip air tickets to and from overseas, given that the relatives are direct family members, the court should, taking into account all the facts and circumstances of the case, make a comprehensive assessment and determine such expenses appropriately.

3. How should the allocation of liability in ancillary civil lawsuits be coordinated with and integrated into the handling of the criminal offense’s specific circumstances?

1. Starting with a careful review of the public security case files and the prosecution case files, we leave no detail or suspicion unexamined. By comprehensively analyzing all the evidence in the case and eliminating reasonable doubt, we provide ample and conclusive grounds for conviction and sentencing.

2. In this case, since the defendant fled the scene after causing the accident, the commercial insurance company is legally exempt from liability for compensation. To help the plaintiff in the ancillary civil lawsuit recover this portion of the loss, the attorney leveraged previous litigation experience and submitted a legal argument focusing on the starting point for criminal sentencing and relevant sentencing factors, thereby clearly highlighting the seriousness of the defendant’s criminal conduct. This approach also laid a solid foundation for the judge to facilitate mediation in the ancillary civil proceedings and, by fully applying the provisions of law, maximized the protection of the client’s legitimate rights and interests.