Families hold back on compensation deal
Though offer has been doubled, victims’ relatives reluctant to give up right to seek further redress
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Though offer has been doubled, victims’ relatives reluctant to give up right to seek further redress
Ng Tze-wei in Beijing
31 July 2011
Most families of victims of the Wenzhou high-speed train crash held back on signing the government’s compensation deal yesterday, despite the near-doubling of the payout on offer.
Some say the offer of 915,000 yuan (HK$1.1 million) is still too low and conditions attached to the deal are unreasonable. Many also believe the government is more concerned with maintaining social stability than fair treatment for the relatives. In particular, they are concerned about the requirement that they have to give up the right to seek further redress.
“We appreciate what Premier Wen [Jiabao] has done for us. But we think the conditions are too harsh,” a relative of one of the victims said, asking not to be identified. “Basically, what they are saying is that even if corruption or other faults are uncovered, we will not be able to ask for more compensation.
“We should be able to retain our right to bring lawsuits.”
The government hastily revised its offer from 500,000 yuan per dead victim to 915,000 yuan on Friday, a day after the premier visited the city and ordered more humane treatment of the victims and families.
Ten families accepted the latest offer on Friday, Xinhua said.
The original figure, which prompted uproar online, was based on Railways Ministry regulations, under which the railway company’s maximum liability in a fatal accident was only 172,000 yuan - the rest was considered goodwill assistance from the government.
To arrive at the new amount, the authorities adopted suggestions from lawyers who spoke to the media, and shifted the basis of calculation to the more generous 2009 civil liability law, which bases compensation on 20 years of average income of the victims, plus burial fees, compensation for mental distress, and subsistence for dependants.
The revised sum is closer to the 960,000 yuan payout made last year over a plane crash in Yichun, Heilongjiang province. But, no detailed breakdown was given.
“The figure might be reasonable for a victim who is elderly. But my ‘brother’ was only 44, and was the sole breadwinner of his family,” a cousin of victim Zhuo Huang said. “Six people depended on him: his wife, two children and three elders. In a city like Wenzhou, 910,000 yuan is really not a lot.
“We don’t think such a standard one-off payment is reasonable.”
Other families were also upset at what they saw as the authorities’ urgency in negotiating compensation as they grappled with their distress, and more immediate concerns, such as identifying and cremating the bodies of their loved ones.
“The officials came, and started talking about money with us,” one family member told Wen last week. “The first time, they said 170,000 yuan. We [said] we had already lost the person, we didn’t want money. Then they came again, and said the sum was 500,000 yuan. What are they doing? Are we bargaining over the prices of vegetables?”
Beijing lawyer Zhang Qihuai, who specialises in transport accidents, said the payout should be at least one million yuan, based on the higher average income in Wenzhou instead of that of the entire Zhejiang province. Railway authorities should pay more, he said, should fault be proven on their part.
“Forcing a citizen to give up his right to bring a lawsuit is against the spirit of the law. And asking them to sign a deal at this critical time, where many are in obvious need of money, is unfair,” Zhang said. “A court should consider such deals invalid.”
But he has a further worry: courts might not dare take up such cases.
But Shanghai lawyer Shi Weijiang said the deal might be the families’ best option. “If they bring a lawsuit, it would be heard by a Railway Court, which is completely controlled by the railway authorities,” he said.