Research On Tort Liability Of Damage Caused By High-speed Rail Transport Operation

With the industrialization accelerates and the rapid socio-economic development in China,principle of no-fault liability is widely used in high-tech industries and transportation industries.As to the chapter of high-risk liability in the Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China,legislation needs to take into account the two conflicting interests: on the one hand,the interests of victims that in a vulnerable position and the progressive value that high-risk activities bring to the whole society.The infringements caused by the high-speed rail transport is a typical high-risk liability.The risk comes from using this kind of transport operation for daily business activities.Even if the daily operation is a lawful act,it does not mean that there would be no danger.Instead,the danger is still very high and unavoidable.In recent years,while high-speed rail transport have brought dramatic changes to the way people travel and live,it is common to cause loss of life property losses by their daily operations.Therefore,by applying to no-fault liability in tort liability caused by high-speed rail transport operation,the operator will be given tougher responsibilities,urging them to actively take vigorous steps to prevent damage and ensure social safety before the damage.After the damage,the operator should have abilities to relieve the damage quickly and properly and finally achieve the purpose of reducing and eliminating social risk factors.In terms of establishment of responsibility,connotation of high-speed rail transport should be understood firstly and comprehensively when analyzing the factor of liability for damage caused by high-speed rail transport.It will be clear that the new urban rail transport such as subways and trams are also means of transport with high risk,and it should be included in the scope of Article 73 in Tort Liability Law.Damages include personal injury,property loss and compensation for mental damage when meetingthe constitutive requirements of Article 22 in the Tort Liability Law;The presumption of causal relation should be adopted when judging the causality of the high risk activity and the damages in tort of liability caused by high-speed rail transport.As long as the infringer can provide prima facie proving that the occurrence of the damage is related to the highly dangerous operation,then the burden of proof on causality is transferred to the infringer.In terms of taking responsibility,the security obligation imposed by the Tort Liability Law requires that the operator of the high-speed rail transport should focus on how to effectively prevent victims from entering the highly dangerous area rather than completely preventing the damage from occurring.In other words,as to the operator's safety control duty,the law claims for behavior rather than results.Even if the operator bears no-fault liability,they are still given the right to raise reduced liability plea or exemption plea.Article 73 stipulates that the intentional act of the victim and the force majeure are exemptions of the tort caused by high-speed rail transport.What's more,both assumption of risk and article 76 should be used in dealing with the tort caused by high-speed rail transport.The fault-balance principle should also be used in the tort caused by high-speed rail transport because no-fault liability does not mean there is no need to consider the fault of the infrigner.When the operators are at fault on the occurrence or spread of the damage,the judge should distribute responsibility by considering both fault and causation.The infringer with fault should be punished by the law more severely than the infringer with no fault.