Seven legal experts have petitioned the State Council to abolish the regulation that limits railway accident injury and death compensation to no more than 150,000 yuan ($23,475), one of the letter's writers told the Global Times Tuesday.

 

Their advice came after the Ministry of Railways agreed to compensate each victim of last month's fatal railway accident 910,000 yuan ($142,415), the amount based on the Tort Liability Law, after its first much more meager offer – based on the railway regulation – failed to satisfy the victims' families.

 

The purpose of the letter, which the State Council received Tuesday, was to repeal the "unlawful' regulation that gives the ministry an unfair advantage, said letter co-drafter Ye Mingxin, a legal expert with Yilian Labor Law Aid and Research Center, a Beijing-based non-profit organization.

 

"The result of the Wenzhou accident compensation was satisfying thanks to public pressure and media coverage, but what about next time?" she said. "Reforming the root of the problem is desperately needed."

 

The State Council is responsible for drawing up and amending administrative rules and regulations in accordance with the law.

 

The letter argues that the Regulation on Emergency Rescue, Investigation and Handling of Railway Traffic Accidents, approved by the State Council and that came into effect on September 1, 2007, violates China's Civil Law, the Railway Law and the Tort Liability Law.

 

"It is against the Railway Law, which stipulates the Ministry of Railways should compensate victims the amount they suffer from an accident that occurs due to the mistakes of the ministry," He Bing, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law who signed the letter, told the Global Times Tuesday.

 

"The liability limit only applies to accidents in which the railway was not at fault," he said. "In other cases, such as the Wenzhou accident, the ministry should compensate victims in accordance with the Civil Law and the Tort Liability Law."

A call by the Global Times to the State Council went unanswered Tuesday.

 

Chen Xin, a law professor with the Beijing Institute of Technology, who also signed the letter, said on his blog Tuesday that the State Council will probably not reply to the letter.

 

"It will amend the regulation though if the regulation proves to be against the law," Chen said.

 

原文链接：

http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/671314/Experts-seek-abolition-of-rail-regulation.aspx

（编辑：杨藜）