Fri, Mar 15, 2024 page8

• More proportionate liability needed

  • By Wu Wu-hwang 吳武煌
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  A large vehicle driver who contravenes traffic rules and causes death would have their driver’s license revoked and would not be allowed to retake the driver’s license test for three years.

  This is equivalent to depriving the driver of their right to work and would deter them from driving illegally in the future.

  However, for companies that provide these large vehicles to drivers — after settling the joint liability and changing drivers — their vehicles which caused the accident get to continue operating.

  The proportion of liability is obviously unbalanced.

  The bottom front, rear, left and right sides are prone to being blind spots as the driver has limited field of vision in these areas.

  When turning, the rear wheels would shift to the side, resulting in a radius difference between the inner wheels, which might pull motorcycle drivers, cyclists and pedestrians into the path of the vehicle and cause fatal accidents.

  It is particularly the case when large vehicles turn right — where the blind spots and radius difference between inner wheels are likely to occur at the same time.

  From January to December 2012, 366 people died due to large vehicle traffic accidents in Taiwan, accounting for 12.1 percent of the 3,023 total deaths.

  This is truly a problem that needs to be solved immediately.

  Transportation agencies at all levels have encouraged the installation of vision-based driver assistance systems in large vehicles to prompt drivers to pay attention to blind spots and inner wheel radius difference. They also urged operators to improve supervision.

  However, road tragedies still occur from time to time, which shows that there are obvious shortcomings that need improvement.

  It is necessary to tackle the problem at the source, focusing on vehicle management and encouraging operators to actively take more supervision responsibilities.

  In Article 61 of the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例) that the Legislative Yuan amended and promulgated on May 3 last year, Paragraph 4 was added to increase the responsibility for driving safety of large vehicles, stipulating that when buses, trucks and motor vehicles weighing more than 3 tonnes cause an accident “resulting in serious injury,” the driver’s license shall be revoked.

  If you take a closer look and compare it with the penalty of causing an accident “resulting in death” stated in Subparagraph 4, Paragraph 1 of Article 61, you would find that the penalties for the two offenses are the same: The driver would have their license revoked.

  This is obviously unbalanced and inconsistent with the principle of proportionality.

  The law should be amended to comply with the spirit of equality and the principle of proportionality in accordance with the Constitution.

  In the event that a large vehicle contravenes the law and results in death, the license plate of the vehicle should also be suspended for two years, on top of revoking the driver’s license. This way, large vehicle operators would be pushed to assume supervisory responsibilities to avoid fatal accidents.

  As Judgement No. 681 of the Supreme Administrative Court points out, the second paragraph of Article 77 of the Highway Act (公路法) offers an appropriate solution — vehicle owners who provide illegally operated vehicles should have their vehicle licenses suspended or revoked.

  This punishment does not exceed the social responsibilities of a vehicle owner. It is legitimate and does not contravene the principles of proportionality and equality, nor does it have the problem of making someone liable for others’ actions.

  The gist of the judgement provides a solid foundation for the proposed amendment to the law.

  Through suspending the license plates of large vehicles, along with administrative control measures, large vehicle operators would have to establish a sound and effective management system. This would include strengthening vehicle safety equipment, such as having an active audible and visual warning blind spot detection system and improving driver assessments.

  This way, large vehicle operators would have to ensure driving safety to avoid the penalty of license plate suspension — or the “imprisonment” of their vehicles — and share the social responsibility for reducing the number of deaths under giant wheels.

  Wu Wu-hwang is deputy commander of the Kaohsiung City Police Department’s Traffic Police Corps.

  Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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