Relatives sue for compensation after fatal crash on road trip

A driver who was involved in a road smash that killed her younger sister, brother-in-law and niece is being sued for 1.6 million yuan by her relatives.

Tianwen rear-ended a car carrying her sibling's family in a six-vehicle pileup on a Beijing expressway on Oct 2, 2009. The family had been heading to the port city of Tianjin for the National Day holidays.

According to a police accident report, the incident started when Xiang - the brother-in-law and driver of the first vehicle - hit a car that had broken down on the road in heavy fog. Tianwen's vehicle and three others were following close behind.

Tianhua, her husband and their daughter all died in the crash, while elder sister Tianwen and her family survived.

An investigation by traffic authorities concluded that Tianwen was partially responsible for the tragedy, prompting Xiang's three brothers and Tianhua's four other siblings to file a joint lawsuit against her and three insurance companies - PICC Property and Casualty, China United Property Insurance and China Pacific Property Insurance.

Fangshan district court heard on Wednesday that Tianwen has offered to pay her share of the compensation, but only if the money is used to build a tomb for the deceased. She also claims she is entitled to receive part of the insurance payout.

Song Shuguo, an attorney with Beijing Shiji Law Firm representing the elder sister, told the court that Tianhua and her family were only injured in the initial collision and were killed by successive blows from the other vehicles involved in the pileup, which is backed up by the traffic authority's investigation report.

The responsibility placed on Tianwen should be reduced, as the three brothers did not sue the other drivers involved, Song argued.

He also dismissed accusations by the plaintiffs that his client had failed to act quickly enough to save her sister and her dying family in the first car, explaining that she was unable to react due to the heavy fog and the injuries she sustained in the pileup.

A verdict is pending.

Names of those involved were amended in the case documents released by Fangshan district court.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/31/2011)