A Study On The Probative Force Of The Traffic Accident Report Of Civil Litigation

The traffic accident report is only a piece of evidence in civil litigation, but it has become the pre-judgment of traffic accident damages in judicial practice. Based on empirical research of 430 verdicts of motor vehicle accident cases of 11 provinces, it is not difficult to find courts all over the country basically base the facts of the case on the facts affirmed in the traffic accident certificate directly, divide the party’s liabilities for traffic accidents according to the determination of the responsibility in the traffic accident certificate, and then ascertain the infringer’s share of damages correspondingly. The high consistency of apportionment of liability and share of responsibility does not comply with the laws of trial of the case and judgment, and it’s also too far away from the essence demand of "unifying scale of judgment". At the same time, the report of traffic accident is easily influenced by various external subjective and objective factors caused by human beings, surroundings, technique and non-accident factors. The probative force is instable and unscientific. The use of the the report of traffic accident by the court should lay emphasis on investigation and avoid following blindly. The traffic police’s affirmation of the accident liability is different from the liability for tort of traffic accident. As a proof of civil action, The report of traffic accident should refer to its fact finding, and it should not conclude the party’s confirmation of responsibility. The affirmation of the liability for tort should belong to judicial authority. What need to be put to proof is the basic facts that affirmation is dependent, not the facts themselves. The report of traffic accident should not be used as isolated evidence. It is not a simple overlay of basic facts, but a chain of evidence with the basic evidences. The court should investigate on the rigor and completeness of the evidence chain. As the "evidence king", we should pay much attention to the affirmation and strengthening of the probative force of the report, thus it can play a better role to its value of proof. Therefore, we need to reinforce the report of traffic accident. One way of strengthening the report of traffic accident is to have procedure guarantee for the traffic police’s appearing and explaining in court. Realization of the special appearance and institutionalization; The other way is to play a full role of judicial expertise of traffic accident. The court should provide specialized guidance to the party’s application for expertise, and should be prudent to launch a reappraisal.