The Beijing Municipal People's Congress Friday adopted a local
implementation method to the Road Traffic Safety Law, requiring
compulsory third-party insurance for all motor vehicles in
Beijing.??
The new scheme will go into effect at the beginning of the next
year.
A special social fund, created from the insurance fund, will be
established to aid victims of traffic accidents in the capital.
Implementation of the method in the capital city will accord
with the national regulation over the compulsory third-party
insurance. It will be drafted by the Legislative Affairs Office of
the State Council and is expected to be approved by the end of this
year, according to Wang Jiayan, a member of the Legal Affairs
Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress.
There is contradiction between the Road Traffic Safety Law and
insurance regulations, sources said.
According to the current insurance regulations, insured vehicles
will be given indemnity from insurance companies only when their
drivers are responsible for accidents.
But the Road Traffic Safety Law, which went effective in May,
prescribed that insurance companies should pay compensation within
the range of compulsory third-party insurance when accidents
involving vehicles occurred, resulting in casualty and financial
losses.
"During the period from May to the time when the national
compulsory third-party insurance regulation is adopted, courts will
make the decision according to their understandings of the issue,"
Wang said yesterday.
But he predicted that the insurance values will possibly not be
enough for compensation for traffic accidents even after the
national regulation takes effect.
The insurance value fixed by Beijing-based insurance companies
is ordinarily less than 100,000 yuan (US$12,100) but a driver will
possibly pay compensation of 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) to relatives
of victims in traffic accidents, or even more.
According to the method adopted yesterday, beyond the indemnity
by insurance companies, other compensation will be paid by the
motor vehicle part according to drivers' responsibility for
accidents involving pedestrians or non-motorized vehicles.
The vehicle section will provide compensation with minimum
figures according to national standards if drivers are not
responsible for the accident at all.
There is no updated minimum compensation standard. The figure
was 10 percent of all compensation in the past.
As local legislation, the implementation method out of the
national Road Traffic Safety Law, is able to be used as basis of
judgments at local courts in Beijing, according to Wang.
Legislation of the method passed a public hearing last month,
for the first time in the history of the Beijing Municipal People's
Congress.
"The Standing Committee of the congress will further expand
public participation in local legislation," Wang said.
He said he is advising that public hearings be held for every
local legislative item related to residents' lives when they are
discussed by legislators.
"We are also considering whether to broadcast public hearings
live," he said.
(China Daily October 23, 2004)