Three years ago, a big dog fell from the sky and hit his mother, and now he finally got a court decision for his paraplegic mother. A pending case has come to an end, but the hurt can no longer be healed.
Everything is because of those dense and high buildings. Tall buildings have always been the embodiment of efficiency in the eyes of man, with convenient power grids, communications, sewerage, and more efficient use of social resources and service costs than bungalows, yet those things that can fall from tall buildings at any Time have become time bombs on the roads.
We visited several families who were hit by falling objects and suffered lasting damage from a momentary “accident”, hoping almost in vain that people around them would understand that what happened to them was not an accident. were not accidents. We also tried to discuss the issues behind falling objects, and how more effective urban management and a more robust protection system can reduce the occurrence of such incidents.
1
Falling
In April in Guangzhou, the weather is indistinguishable, with frequent switches between high temperature and cold rain, and rainwater accumulating puddles and maps on the concrete road in Crowgang Village. It is a usual urban village, lunch eaten, nothing to do, people sitting in the street drowsy. At noon on a Sunday, two women walk across this chilly street to visit a clinic. The unpredictable weather had given the child in one’s arms a high fever.
It was the third time they had walked to this clinic, and the first two times it was not open. The small blackboard in front of the clinic showed that the lunch break was until 1:30, but the doctor hadn’t shown up yet. The woman who owns the convenience store across the street from the clinic told them that this doctor always delays until 2:00.
The third time, at 1:51, the small facade under this two-story factory finally pulled open the iron gate and the two women walked forward. Five steps from the door, an unidentified huge object fell with a muffled thud, like a bag of cement hitting the ground.
The woman holding the child walked in front, turned around only to see her companion fell to the ground, but around but no hit things. The fallen man’s eyes were closed and his face turned gray, and the woman’s legs went limp with fear.
Within that second, only a few passers-by could see: a dog fell from the air. After hitting the woman walking in the back, the dog was unharmed and then disappeared.
The unfortunate woman named Zhang Ping, 48 years old, just from Hubei south to work less than a month. The impact caused a high cervical fracture and spinal cord injury, and after lying in a hospital bed for nearly six months, she was told that she would spend the rest of her Life in paraplegia. It all happened so fast, like a movie being suddenly torn out of a frame, that Zhang Ping didn’t even know how she had fallen.
This is one of the common cases among the frequent cases of falling objects from height in recent years. According to the Supreme People’s Court, from 2016 to 2018, the national courts concluded more than 1,200 cases of falling objects thrown from a height, and 31 criminal cases were accepted, more than fifty percent of these 31 cases resulted in the death of the victims.
The news is disheartening; falling objects can happen in any building dense and with no way to foresee them. It could be a dog or cat falling down, a cigarette butt, an iron bed, a refrigerator, a kitchen knife, leftovers, feces …… A baby girl has had half of her head smashed by a falling apple, and a boy has been killed by a falling window.
You can never guess what people are throwing things down for. It could be accidental, to vent anger, a prank, or a child throwing the Qiankun circle in order to imitate the cartoon Nezha. in July 2019, Beijing police investigated and dealt with five cases of throwing things from a height in one month, among them, one because a couple argued to vent anger, one because a tenant was too lazy to go downstairs to throw garbage, and two because children were momentarily “curiosity”.
Throwers often underestimate the lethality of falling objects. An apple thrown from the 10th floor can shatter 4 mm thick glass, and an egg thrown from the 18th floor can easily break a person’s skull. According to Zhang Ping’s attending physician, the impulse of the dog from a height to Zhang Ping’s cervical spine, coupled with the force of the reflex contraction of the neck muscles, can instantly reach 130 kg, Zhang Ping was able to save his life is a miracle.
Ambulance will soon pull people away, Zhang Ping’s husband Zhang Sheng hurried from the site to the hospital. The 48-year-old dark-faced mason sat on a stool outside the resuscitation room all night, and fear made his whole body tingle. He could not understand, according to the old folks to him, Zhang Ping was tripped and fell, but how can fall so hard?
After settling Zhang Ping in the hospital, Zhang Sheng and his son Zhang Liqing, who had just been called from Wuhan, returned to the site of the incident, they wanted to find out how everything happened. Where did the dog come from?
They reported the incident, only to find that it wasn’t that simple. Like many other falling object cases, they were about to have a lawsuit that would be hard to see the end of.
2
Rooftop
Yellow hair, standing ears, wide muzzle, medium fat and thin, the most common kind of earth dog on the street. 5 days after the accident, Zhang Liqing saw the camera surveillance footage in front of the clinic. He decided to look for clues.
Zhang Ping was hit by the location, is a two-story factory building downstairs, in addition to that small clinic, where more than six small factories and various types of individual households, the production of electronic components, doors and windows, rat glue, etc., people are busy in the sooty dim workshop, said the factory, more closely resembling a Home workshop. Zhang Liqing and Zhang Sheng around the two-story irregular polygonal building a few turns, wet road, some yellow dogs running through, each like, and not like.
Is the owner of the dog in the plant? Led by the village patrol, they ascended to the rooftop of the plant, trying to find traces, and then fell into confusion.
With the rooftop as a viewpoint reaching into the distance, the edge of the village is the city’s skyscrapers, a skyline of tall buildings that has been closing in for 20 years. In the village, some people drive the latest cars, others kill dogs and eat meat barefoot in the alleyways, and newly built high-rise rental houses hold ancient ancestral halls in the palm of their hands. The urban village was full of opportunities, it was a transit point for rural migrants to progress to the city, and the next development point for the city, yet now, there is nothing here, the rooftops are clean and clueless.
The potholed rooftop after the rain leaves only many broom marks from the cleaning of the bamboo broom. There was nothing about the dog. The side of the wall where the dog fell was set up with a melon and vine rack, in addition to the melon and vegetables, next to a number of iron cages stacked, with birds, chickens, snakes, a “Yuchuan casserole dish” written on the Signboard erected against the wall.
The police station checked all the surveillance, in the maze of handshake building-style rental houses, the dog ran away a few hundred meters, into an alley, and did not appear.
It seems reasonable that a dog would disappear forever on such a street, as the people here are also secretive in their whereabouts. Zhang Liqing expanded his search to a few hundred meters away from the street where anti-drug and no motorcycle drunk driving signs always scrolled, and where temporary part-timers lingered in front of short job postings and small ads for short term rentals, ready to leave. They all said they knew nothing about the falling dog.
According to Article 87 of the Tort Liability Law, if it is difficult to determine the specific tortfeasor who caused damage to another person by throwing objects from a building or falling objects from a building, the user of the building who may have caused the damage shall compensate, except for those who can prove that they are not the tortfeasor. In desperation, Zhang Liqing and his Family took the landlord and tenants of the entire building, a total of 11 people, to court.
Eventually, the case went to court four times, with the conflict always glued to the issue of the origin of the dogs.
The factory owners denied keeping the dogs, but Zhang Liqing discovered a new suspicion. By chance, he saw a video taken by a reporter on the rooftop earlier in the day, showing a blue folded cage on the ground. Many nearby pet store owners confirmed that this was the kind of dog cage they would sell in their stores.
The factory manager at the defendant’s table shook his head straight: can’t see the cage is loaded with dogs.
Electronics factory manager Lao Guo is one of the defendants. He said that if the dog is really kept by the people of the plant, other tenants will certainly confess to the police, after all, who do not want to take the blame for the dog breeder. He believes that the plant has three staircases all leading to the rooftop, never locked, there may be stray dogs accidentally run up.
“Will not pay, absolutely will not pay. “Old Guo thinks it’s a matter of dignity. “Donation is no problem, but to say that I ‘compensation’, it means that I have a fault. “
At the very beginning, Zhang Ping party agent lawyer Li Jiting was confident in the case, however, with the details of the depth, he often felt anxious.
The plant where the dog fell was mixed with fish, which was supposed to be a factory that could only be used for industrial production, but cooking utensils, beds and other living supplies were found in the plant. In addition, the building did not have a title deed. According to the law, the property is also responsible for the safety of the house, but when the reporter asked the property, but found that the plant titular “property” responsible for the actual rent collection and other The actual responsibility is only to collect rent and other daily affairs.
During the four sessions, the judge went to the scene several times to investigate, but nothing. Several months had passed and the rooftop had changed its appearance and there were no traces to be examined. After the key facts were missing, the origin of the dog became a Rashomon.
For nearly three years, the court has not ruled on the outcome, but the cost of treatment continues to empty the family. During this period, Zhang Liqing kept calling to urge the court to reply, saying that due to the complexity of the case, the case was later transferred to the trial committee, which was also in a dilemma.
In order to fight the case, Zhang Liqing quit a job in an advertising company and stayed in Guangzhou for two years, during which he could only do odd jobs such as express sorting to make ends meet. The family’s debts were so high that the dog that fell from a high altitude made everything come to naught.
According to the “Guangzhou Dog Breeding Regulations”, dogs need to be registered with a license and on a leash. Zhang Liqing kept looking for a new object of anger, “Since they say urbanization, why are there so many stray dogs running around in today’s metropolis? “
Dragging a paraplegic patient, masonry work could not be done, the disillusioned couple went back home. I met them nearly three years later in a half-repaired three-storey village house in Xinhua Village. in December in Hubei, as cold inside as outside, Zhang Ping was lying on a large bed, wrapped in a floral blanket, mattress, quilt and cotton clothes, revealing only the upper half of her smiling face with a shaved inch. She has been lying like this for nearly three years.
It was time for the massage. Zhang Sheng lifted her right hand, like lifting a Barbie doll’s hand, the five fingers on the hand also like a doll’s fingers curled helplessly inward, he will straighten these five fingers more than 50 times a day, the process is like trying to give life to a doll’s limbs.
The massage had to be done every three hours, morning and evening, and the medical advice was once every two hours to prevent bedsores. Since last year, this middle-aged man who had not slept the whole night for a long time decided to loosen up a bit. The pair of feet and five fingers in his hands went through rubbing again and again, becoming clean, smooth, odorless and inelastic.
It’s time to turn over, Zhang Sheng jerked off the covers, Zhang Ping frowned, the lower half of her fat-strewn face was revealed, below her face were her shoulders, the long period of bed rest had robbed her of her neck. When she was still in the hospital, Zhang Ping always asked Zhang Liqing to hold up the mirror, so she could look at her face and body. Zhang Liqing remembered that since childhood, she had heard adults say that her mother was good-looking. Zhang Ping is small, likes to draw eyebrows, dresses well, “not like other village women like fancy. “Now, she has not mentioned the mirror for a long time.
Now look back on that big city, the high-rise buildings did not leave her memories, leaving only the indifference of not being seen.
After being discharged from the hospital, in order to do disability identification, Zhang Ping and his wife stayed in Guangzhou for a little more than half a year, staying in a hotel is a huge expense, but they do not live in low-cost housing. Each time the landlord hung up the phone after introducing his family’s situation. Zhang Liqing heard that the locals believe in feng shui, patients have lived in, the house is not clean. Zhang Sheng has also heard a more bizarre version: a garment in Guangzhou, Tianmen hometown, a day myocardial infarction in the rental room, before he breathed, was evicted by the landlord order.
In the village of Crow Heights, Zhang Sheng to the rental house tile, Zhang Ping play hands, cooking, leisure time to go out and stroll, impressed always under the feet of the sewage from unknown sources. Lingnan rainy, poor road drainage, to which the locals have long been accustomed.
On April 15, as usual, rainwater puddled out in front of the clinic. The woman holding the child had stepped straight through, while Zhang Ping, with her head down, paused and took a step to the right to avoid the puddle.
In the moment when Zhang Ping took a step to the right, the big dog fell from the sky.
3
Up the ladder
Falling objects from height are closely related to the rapid development of cities. 1998~2018, China’s urbanization rate rose from 33.4% to 59.6%, and the area of new housing construction increased from 200 million to 2.09 billion square feet, and the growth of the number yanked out its derivatives – data from China’s adjudication website shows that since 2013 The number of judgments related to “falling objects/throwing objects” has surged.
In 2018, in less than a month of working in Guangzhou, Zhang Ping and his wife earned 10,000 yuan, nearly double what they earned back home in Hubei. The nearly 50-year-old couple lamented that it was too late to come out.
Before marrying Zhang Sheng, a young man from Xinhua village, Zhang Ping learned a good craft under the tailor, but soon, industry replaced manual garment making, Zhang Ping helped in the Zhang family farming, after a few years, mechanization robbed the labor, the field can not earn money, Zhang Ping was hired to a local door factory, a dozen years. In these ten years, there are constantly bold people out of the village, the year-end bulging wallets back, building new houses, and then buy a house in the county. Only the couple has been sitting at home. Until 2018, the door factory closed down and had to go.
They landed in Guangzhou’s Crow Heights Village, a cluster of industrial parks and logistics parks where heavy trucks roar day and night on Crow Heights Road, exchanging toil for a ladder for dreamers to enter the city. A constant stream of new jobs provides Zhang Sheng with the opportunity to earn money. They think, in Guangzhou for another 5 years, to buy a house for their son, the money to marry a daughter-in-law will be enough to save.
For rural immigrants like Zhang Ping couple, can really enter the city residential area to live, buy a house is always a minority of people, more people can only sweat the proceeds back home, buy a set of county houses, also considered to cross into the city. Obviously, this ladder can only be built by the house, in Zhang Ping’s hometown of Tianmen city, many 30-storey residential buildings towering over the empty streets, almost sold out, but few people move in. Zhang Sheng frowned and told me that not to mention the whole village, just his family’s group, 70% have bought a house in the city.
The city tries hard to widen its capacity and stretch its tentacles, but that hastily built pathway is not so solid. in December 2020, I visited another family who suffered a fall from a height, and I found that the two families shared some similar paths and Dreams of life, and also experienced a sudden loss of fall on the way up due to the fall from a height.
In 2017, 140 kilometers away from Crow Heights, at the junction of Guangshen, a happy family of three moved into the Cinnamon Garden neighborhood, a neighborhood that was clean, decent, and had affordable rent due to its remote location. At first, they rented the 2nd floor and felt that the light was dim, so they moved to the 23rd floor. This suddenly opened up the view to a large lush green golf course, and new possibilities were close at hand.
At about the same time, the 24th floor of the building also welcomed its new tenant. Zhu Jianming, the owner of a car dealership, sold a suite and a car and moved here with his wife and two daughters. The money from the sale of his house and car was smashed into a large car dealership, and he was ready to make a big splash.
A year later, the second child of the 23rd floor was born, a lively and beautiful baby girl named Mengfan. A dream, not ordinary. At the same time, the couple also saved up a good amount of money to buy a house in the suburbs of Dongguan – a highlight of the extraordinary achievements of this pair of hard-working workers who had moved south from their hometown in Hubei for more than a decade. The child is almost 3 months old, and her mother, Amei, booked a 100-day photography art photo session for her, paying a deposit of 2,000 yuan. In the future, this beautiful set of photos will hang on the wall of the house that belongs to them. For this photo shoot, pink, pleated and lacy sarongs were prepared one after another, and Mei was full of anticipation.
It was less than a week before the photo shoot. On a warm March afternoon, Grandma was walking downstairs with Mengfan in her arms, and she was about to walk into the flat when she suddenly stopped, an acquaintance had arrived. After exchanging a few pleasantries with the person, the acquaintance left and Grandma continued to walk inside when an orb came crashing down.
It was an apple that hit Fanfan’s head, which was lying on her right shoulder, and shattered and scattered all over her. After taking a CT scan to a nearby hospital, the doctor informed her that she had been transferred to a large hospital, and that “half of her brain had been smashed away”.
The hospital concluded that Fan was smashed into a severe cranio-cerebral injury, the right brain softening foci damage of about 80%, leaving the left side of the body hemiplegic, (probably lifelong) need most of the care dependence.
The DNA on the apple guided the police to the culprit – Xiao Xing, the eldest daughter of the Zhu family, who lived on the 24th floor. On this day, she was playing with her dog on the balcony and threw the bitten apple into the dog bowl; bang, the apple bounced out and fell through a gap in the balcony railing.
The court awarded 1.85 million yuan in damages to the 24th floor tenants. The sky was falling. It was not only Fanfan’s family that was hit by panic, but also a family on the 24th floor. Xiao Xing was the child Zhu Jianming’s wife had with her ex-husband, and when he first learned the news, he was both shocked and angry, scolding the child, followed by several arguments between his wife and him. In the meantime, fearing for the debts to be carried and public opinion, Xiao Xing’s mother once wanted to take her daughter and jump into the river to commit suicide.
All because of that momentary accident. Parents are always concerned about their children’s safety Education, but few pay attention to the dangers of falling objects. Few people will remind their children that throwing things on the balcony may fly out and hurt people.
At first, Zhu Jianming sincere attitude towards compensation, is hesitant on the issue of money, in Fanfan family repeatedly urged, he finally only came up with 75,000 yuan of medical expenses. Zhu Jianming explained that all his money was invested in store operations, the garage was sold, and there was no money left on hand.
The family has spent more than 1.4 million yuan on medical treatment, and to date, there are still 30,000 yuan a month in rehabilitation fees continue to produce, borrowing money is also really can not borrow out, Fanfan family once ran to the Zhu family store pulled a banner to collect debts, but in vain. The parents of Fanfan discussed with their lawyer, and it seems that the problem should not only be with the perpetrator.
The apple fell against the fall-proof platform at the time of the incident, and Fanfan’s mother, Mei, believed that if the platform had been 10 cm wider, the tragedy would not have happened. They decided to appeal to the court to make the developer and the property bear part of the responsibility.
However, according to the results of the on-site measurement and the reply from the housing and construction department, the width of the fall prevention platform of the building in question met the standard, and the court rejected the appeal.
Yang Jingbo, the lawyer representing Fanfan, expressed her dissatisfaction: “In the service contract, Cinnamon Garden Property publicly promised to give the owners a ‘five-star home ‘, where does this ‘five-star’ come from? At the entrance of the unit where the crime occurred, there was not even a camera. “
For three years, Fanfan’s grandmother has been living in self-blame. At times, a wave of grief and anger rose from the bottom of her heart and could only be suppressed to the bottom of her heart.
Three years had passed, and the baby in the hospital bed had grown into a three-year-old child, lying as a model doll that had been stretched and flattened. Most of the time, she sits quietly on the support of an adult, her long, curly eyelashes fluttering slowly. No one knows what is going on inside this half-grown, 30-pound child.
Sometimes, for no apparent reason, the child would burst into a smile and show her little teeth, just like when she was a little girl, before it all happened.
Van is naturally responsive to Music, and at just under 3 months old, she is already playing the electronic piano with her brother, crackling the keyboard – a future musician, the adults thought.
Now, at 3 years old, whenever the child cries and has a signal in the cramped rental house, his grandmother turns on her cell phone and plays children’s songs, and the crying stops abruptly. Grandma says that Fanfan doesn’t play with toys or watch cartoons, but likes music. After a while, the child’s eyes closed and he fell asleep.
The falling apple also ruined the Zhu family’s happiness. After the incident, Fanfan’s family, as well as the perpetrator, Xiaoxing’s family, moved away from the neighborhood where they could see the golf course.
As far as Xiao Xing’s uncle Zhu Hua knows, Zhu Jianming has taken his family to Hunan to work. Come to Dongguan for many years, from Inner Mongolia’s capable part-time workers Zhu Jianming saved up the capital to open a small car dealership and become the boss. According to his next plan, expansion, open a large car dealership, a year will be able to earn more than ten million. Now, everything is back to square one. The lawsuit, pressure from within the family and external negative public opinion, so Zhu Jianming that just put into operation the car dealership closed down early, half a year of store rent, decoration, equipment also lost together. Now, he not only owes the victim’s family compensation, but also owes several million in foreign debts.
On the homepage of the car dealership, which has been turned out, there are still comments such as “there is a murderer in the family” in the public review. As for the girl who “did something wrong”, Xiao Xing, she became sexually autistic and had problems going to school.
In the process of telling the story, they all mentioned the house to me: “The money I had saved for the house is gone. The “house” they were chasing had fallen from the The thing that fell from the “house” they were chasing and destroyed their house is probably the most puzzling part of the story.
4
The Innocent Guilty
Nearly three years after the incident, most of the tenants in the plant where the dog fell have moved out, except for the old Guo’s electronics factory and a rat glue factory, where other factories are now newly settled. According to tenants, after the incident, the village environmental protection, fire, health, safety supervision often come to check, many factories fire are not off, or no business license, they were cleared away.
Rat glue factory is located a little far from the fallen dog plant southeast side. Dimly lit warehouse, a production line slowly spit out the pressed rat glue, two or three workers sitting in front of the production line, the goods encapsulated into boxes, such as such boxes stacked up layer by layer, piled up the warehouse, which are affected by the Epidemic sales and not sent out of the goods.
The boss told me that since the lawsuit dispute, several workers in the factory soon ran away, saying that they were afraid of being implicated, and new people could not be recruited, and once they heard about the situation, they did not come. Her heart is very unhappy, “as if there is an unprovoked thing also hit me. “
Still living here, and witnessed the scene, only the clinic next door to the convenience store owner Xiao Cai. She is from Hunan, and the woman holding the child is a hometown, with the Crow Heights village working for many years, Zhang Ping, Cai is the first time to see, only to remember that she is particularly neatly dressed.
The incident, she was doing crafts in the store, heard a loud noise, come out to see, the peer holding the child’s hometown has been too scared to stand up, the central small Cai help. See the ground with dirty water, Cai found a piece of cardboard pad under Zhang Ping. The clinic’s old doctor gave Zhang Ping pinch pinch, let Zhang Ping briefly turn awake.
After the accident, the woman holding the child told Zhang Sheng rushed to the hospital, Zhang Ping fell while walking, did not mention the matter of accompanying the child to see a doctor. It was not until Zhang Sheng found the convenience store Xiao Cai, learned the truth. Zhang Sheng understand this, “people are afraid of being found trouble. “
A few months later, Zhang Sheng wanted to contact the villagers again, the phone call was empty. The woman holding the child disappeared in the village of Crow Heights, and the owner of the convenience store did not see her again.
The clinic also belongs to the tenant of the plant, is one of the defendants in Zhang Ping side of the lawsuit. Before the trial, the clinic doctor called Zhang Sheng and asked him not to sue him, “I am your life saver. “Zhang Liqing politely refused, the big deal is to award the compensation and then return the money to him.
The old doctor who runs the clinic is a local person, retired from the Second Hospital of Canton Medical Center will subsidize the life of a family through this clinic. After the accident, the authorities who came to inspect the clinic found that it did not have a business license and shut it down. To add insult to injury, shortly after the dog fell, the old man’s wife suddenly suffered a stroke of paralysis and was hospitalized for a year, and walked away, and could not be carried home after she left. Local customs are such that people who die outside are not allowed to enter the village.
The whereabouts of the old doctor is also unknown.
5
The never-ending questioning
It is almost impossible for passers-by to foresee what might fall from the building on the heads of the elderly, the children, the poor and the rich. People envision all kinds of accidents, but rarely do they think about falling objects.
Similarly, as a common hazard in cities, vehicle insurance systems on the road are more common, but people rarely insure their houses against the possibility of falling objects. We have enough education about the dangers of the road to raise our spirits when crossing the street, but few are wary of a tall building without a fall-proof platform. Of course, that caution doesn’t always work – falling objects often happen in a fraction of a second.
In August 2019, a window that fell from the 15th floor hit Ms. Wang’s 5½-year-old daughter in her arms in the Wanda Junhao Shijia neighborhood of Haikou City. The prongs of the window were vertically zapped down, and the child’s head burst open in front of her mother’s eyes, and she had already breathed her last when she was taken to the hospital. It was found that the window was a private addition to the balcony of the owner of the 15th floor, the window was of poor quality and fell down the stairs one day when someone pushed it.
Ms. Wang and the attorney argued that this should be a criminal case. They found that before the case, the owner had noticed the problem of loose windows and failed to repair them in time. However, the police concluded after investigation that it was an accident. In the end, the court ruled that the perpetrator and the property pay money according to 7:3. During the long lawsuit, the single mother, who was in a trance, quit her job and hid at home, afraid to contact others. She couldn’t understand who was at fault.
There is not enough state intervention in preventing falling objects in China, relying mainly on property autonomy. Ms. Wang’s confusion is why a modern building allows owners to add windows of substandard quality on their own. What is the corresponding regulatory mechanism for the installation of windows in a building? No response was given by the local Ministry of Housing and Construction.
A large number of cases of falling objects are characterized as accidents, but are falling objects really unavoidable?
China has become the world’s number one country in terms of construction volume. In an interview, Zhang Xinbao, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, mentioned that the problem goes hand in hand with urbanization and must also be solved with further urbanization. “Living in bungalows in the past, throwing things around was a habit for certain people, such as throwing an object from the window and it could go straight into a special garbage pile in the yard. After living in a building, his past habits have not changed. “
“That is to say, after living in a building, living on a high floor and living in a bungalow does not form a distinction, and the awareness of safety, public morality and the legal system needed to live on a high floor has not been fully formed. “
Other places have similarly struggled with these problems. In Hong Kong, China, in order to improve the rate of solving cases of falling objects, since 1998, the Hong Kong Housing Department has installed a camera monitoring system for falling objects in a number of housing estates throughout the territory, and six years later, the Housing Department has hired a team of former police officers to specifically detect cases of falling objects in public housing buildings.
In 2013, cigarette butts were often found on the ground floor of Singapore’s CompuVille neighborhood, and after the perpetrators were identified, the court sentenced them to a S$19,800 (about RMB 90,000) fine and five hours of labor rehabilitation. In Hong Kong, China, a demerit point system for estate management has been in place since 2003, where points are deducted for throwing objects from height, and those who reach a certain number of points are forced to surrender their tenancy. According to relevant data, throwing objects from height has been significantly reduced since then.
In the administrative law research vice president Yu Lingyun view, at present, China’s criminal law and civil law disciplinary measures only for falling objects occurred in the case of personal injury punishment, but for those who have not yet caused damage to the consequences of throwing behavior, there is no corresponding administrative law to restrain this, he believes that the urgent need to fill.
There is no denying that there are many intentional throwers in falling objects cases, but there are also a large number of defendants who do not have malicious intent. They think that they are just a momentary negligence, or just because they can not find the perpetrators, they are “implicated”, feel aggrieved. As a result, the defendants’ insubordination to compensation and repeated appeals exist in a large number of falling objects cases. 2016, a fitness iron ball that could not be found by its owner smashed a baby girl to death, and the judge awarded compensation for the whole building. 4 years later, many tenants have not paid the compensation or are preparing appeals.
At a jurisprudence seminar, the court’s vice president Ding Yuxiang also mentioned the difficulties encountered in practice. “The vast majority of defendants in falling objects cases are neither at fault nor did they commit any act, yet they are judged liable, so many defendants who feel innocent are very resistant to the judgment and will not take the initiative to fulfill it. “
Due to the difficulty of finding the perpetrator as well as the long time to fight the lawsuit, some countries or regions have introduced corresponding relief measures: in Taiwan, when the perpetrator cannot be identified for a while, the victim who has been seriously injured can apply for compensation from the prosecutor’s office of the local court, after which the government will then seek compensation from the perpetrator. In the United States, in different states, there are state compensation systems, accident funds, and homeowner’s insurance to deal with such situations.
In China, the “joint and several” compensation system is still the main remedy in cases where the aggressor cannot be found.
Since the 2019 incident in which a boy was killed by a falling window, there have been several more cases of falling objects in Shenzhen, and the widespread outcry has brought about some changes – now, many high-rise windows in Shenzhen’s homes and hotels have warning signs posted next to them prohibiting throwing objects from a height, and some high-rise windows have been installed with restrictors that can only be opened a crack. Some city deputies discussed whether it is possible to follow the example of Hong Kong, the establishment of a mandatory building inspection window inspection system, so that the failure of the window down no longer occur.
In the case of falling objects, the reason why the perpetrators can not be found is very common, which is both the problem of the pre-existing conditions – such as the incident did not install upward monitoring, but also with the investment of police power – the local public security organs often fall from height as The local public security authorities often file civil cases rather than criminal ones. Currently, the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China, which has been in effect since January 1 of this year, makes special mention of the requirement that the relevant authorities should investigate falling objects from height in accordance with the law and identify those responsible. In addition, the responsibility of the property has been re-emphasized further.
Recently, some of the properties in China’s long-standing neighborhoods plagued by falling objects from height have installed cameras at their own expense, but some properties have complained that the purchase and maintenance of cameras is a big expense and has limited effect in the absence of combined efforts from other parties.
In the view of Zhang Ping party lawyer Li Jiting, in the process of doing that “can’t do” case, he and Zhang Liqing family encountered all the difficulties, only to show that “Civilization is still far away from our real life”.
What kind of lifestyle our citizens choose is what a society is like. “He hopes Zhang Liqing will come forward more often, speak out more often and advocate for his legal rights.
“We should never stop asking, is the current life what you want or not? Are those operating mechanisms around our lives reasonable or not? Are you really monitoring and pursuing? “
“People have to have these consciousnesses, and only after that will they slowly awaken, and only then will they slowly correct what is not normal. Without awakening, people are just like dreaming, living in a nightmare, always running in a machine. “Li Jiting said.
6
Urban Dream
February 5, 2021, Guangzhou Baiyun District People’s Court announced a verdict on Zhang Ping’s case, the landlord and the plant’s second floor electronics factory jointly compensate 1.17 million, the other defendants bear the responsibility, the court does not support.
Previously, the electronics factory director Lao Guo has told me that even if he is awarded compensation one day, he will definitely appeal to the end. Zhang Ping party attorney Li Jiting said that they are not very satisfied with the verdict of compensation for liability recognition, the amount and the number of people responsible. The family is thinking about whether to appeal.
In order to take care of his wife, Zhang Sheng has nearly 3 years can not go out to work, the son’s income is meager, the couple rely on a small acre of vegetable land in front of the home to live, the body has new problems, but also no money into the hospital treatment. Waiting for the verdict, in order to avoid the outcome of the verdict was affected, they did not social fundraising – during this period, Zhang Sheng’s only motivation to persist, is “waiting for a fair verdict “.
The lack of sleep always makes his head feel groggy, and only cigarettes can make Zhang Sheng a little more awake. After feeding Zhang Ping dinner, Zhang Sheng lit up a cigarette at the door to the night. Outside the house, a large wheat field across the river, is the shining neon lights of the city of Tianmen, the country side, is dead silence.
At night, some heads poke straight into the bedrooms, people who visit the house after dinner. In the early years, the villagers finished their work at 5pm. In those days, the nights were long, and after dinner, once the night was dark, Zhang Ping and Zhang Sheng leapt out the door separately. Along different lines, they joined three or two people one by one to gossip until the night would end. “Someone in the bay stand me stand half the night. “Memories of the past, Zhang Ping a pair of eyes dark and shiny.
Door stringing, the night’s topic changed. Someone left home and went south to work, bringing back stories of money and ambition. Originally, Zhang Ping’s family did not care, stories of riches did not appeal to them. Until a few years ago, they found that the bride price for Marriage in the village was getting higher and higher.
The family’s family is a very important part of the family’s life, and they are very interested in the future of their son’s marriage. 20 years ago, the local family planning policy allowed villagers to have another baby after having a female child, while those who had a boy were not allowed to have another baby. 20 years later, there are more men and fewer women, and the bride price has risen in response, and young people in the village are already getting married with a bride price of 500,000.
In 2018, the city to repair the subway, Zhang Ping work for more than a decade the door factory collapsed, Zhang Ping began to discuss with Zhang Sheng to go out of the trip. Zhang Liqing advised them not to go. His mother was sick early in life and had a kidney cut, and he felt that her body could not survive.
“Where is it so easy to make money outside? ” Zhang Liqing said. The next time the topic came up, he found the old couple already in Guangzhou.
Now, when the weather is good, Zhang Sheng will carry Zhang Ping to the wheelchair and push it outside the house to sunbathe.
In broad daylight, the countryside is as silent as it is sleeping away. The only people who come to the door are these: an old woman, a young boy who gnaws on the old man and a widow with mental illness. Other than that, there was no one under the age of 40 in the whole village.
A few people laugh and chat about the changes in the village, “The 6th group in the village has all been demolished, the 10th group is almost empty, and we are the only ones left in this group. “
This group of stringers is close to Zhang Sheng’s family, who see the family as losers who have retreated from the city to the countryside and as their allies, however Zhang Sheng does not want to see it that way.
In the first half of 2020, Zhang Ping often made a fuss about drinking pesticides. She knew exactly what she was talking about. The old people in the village, who could not do it anymore and were afraid of dragging the young people down, many of them died drinking pesticides in this way.
Over the years, Zhang Sheng often anxious in his heart, he did not want to stay any longer. When the compensation money down, Zhang Sheng to find a way to treat his wife again, in case there is any new treatment? He said that as long as he can cure his wife to live on her own, he will go out to work again. He was willing to go to Guangzhou once more.
Another night falls. In Guangzhou’s Crow Heights Village, factory managers of electronics and curtain factories appeared one after another at Xiao Cai’s convenience store, sitting in a ball around an electric heater, a regular nightly stronghold for lonely wage earners.
About the dog, I think they have a confidential part. When we met for the first time, Cai, the owner of the convenience store, was reluctant to talk much, and it took a long cross-examination of one factory manager after another before I pried her open. Convenience stores and their regular customers must share certain secrets, secrets that are the basis for their forward movement in a suspended life.
After the incident, the village of Crow Heights has undergone some changes, with fewer stray dogs and no one stealing unlocked motorcycles. The relevant cadres of the village committee told me that now, for the local industrial plants, the relevant departments conduct fire inspections and training every quarter, as well as environmental inspections. On the balconies of many rental houses, villagers have voluntarily added partitions to prevent falling objects from falling.
From this street all the way to the east, a large road called Crow Heights Road closes the small road, which is the most prosperous area of Crow Heights, with hotels, saunas and billiard cities. There is a small square in front of the hotel, into the night, rhythmic music, two lines of middle-aged women gathered in the square.
For a while, Zhang Ping also often dreamed of dancing. Dancing is Zhang Sheng to buy the disc. At that time, the Internet was not yet popular, people knew the outside world from TV and discs, and villagers who came back from working abroad brought back novel activities from the city. At night, the women faced the wheat field, lined up, square dance. Zhang Ping’s heart was excited.
That was the time when Zhang Ping had the best imagination about the city.
*At the request of the interviewee, Zhang Ping, Zhang Sheng, Zhang Liqing, Amei, Zhu Jianming, Xiao Xing, Zhu Hua, Ms. Wang, Lao Guo and Xiao Cai are pseudonyms in this article
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