"Zombie Car": How to cure alternative city garbage

● In reality, there are a large number of "zombie cars", and the negative impact cannot be ignored: on the one hand, it encroaches on public resources and aggravates the problem of urban parking difficulties; on the other hand, there are safety hazards, such as the impact of dilapidated vehicle degradants on the environment, or the impact on the passage of fire and ambulance vehicles

● The definition of "zombie car" is unclear, the lack of a clear legal definition, the difficulty of contacting the owner or the owner of the management right, and the difficulty of communicating with the owner of the car, resulting in a certain difficulty in the governance of such cars in practice

● Experts suggest improving legislation to solve the identification of "zombie cars" from the legislative level, including the basis for identification, procedures, subjects (competent units), etc.; at the same time, improve the vehicle scrapping system, strengthen the responsibility of car owners; but also give play to the "close-" role of property and community, do a good job in daily vehicle management, and control "zombie cars" interlockingly

For more than half a year, Liu Rushi, a Beijing resident, has seen a red car every day near a bus stop on a road that must pass through to work. The car's body was covered with dust and rust.

"This kind of car seems to be a city's alternative garbage, which not only occupies public resources for a long time, but also affects the appearance of the city, so why is no one in charge?" Liu Rushi did not understand.

This kind of vehicle parked in a certain location for a long time, which is difficult for the owner to find and no one cares about, has an image name - "zombie car". "Rule of Law Daily" reporter recently randomly visited more than 10 streets and communities in Beijing's Xicheng District, Chaoyang District, Tongzhou District and other places and found that "zombie cars" are not uncommon, these vehicles are generally dirty and messy, the window glass is covered with thick dust, and it looks completely unusable.

A number of law enforcement officers and experts interviewed by reporters pointed out that the unclear definition of "zombie cars" and the difficulty of communicating with car owners have led to certain difficulties in the governance of such cars in practice. In the future, it is necessary to improve legislation, so that the actual governance of "zombie cars" can be based on the law, and through the multi-party linkage of traffic police, urban management, communities, etc., governance according to law; in addition, the management of vehicle registration and scrapping links should be strengthened, the responsibility of car owners should be strengthened, and scrapped vehicles should be prevented from becoming "zombie cars".

"Zombie cars" are not uncommon

Crowding out parking spaces affects the appearance of the city

Recently, the reporter came to the bus platform that Liu Rushi said, and found that there was a red car parked on the back of the platform, the body was full of dust, and the wiper and the door had different degrees of damage, because it had just snowed not long ago, and some snow was piled in front of the wheels.

The reporter saw at the scene that not only this "zombie car" was parked on this road, but at least 3 cars in a row were in a dilapidated appearance and unused state for a long time. One of the silver cars also had a red advertising paper of "high-priced used cars" pasted, and the paper was also damaged in many places due to the long time. There was also a white van with cramped wheels, and through the mottled windows it was faintly visible that the seats and other facilities had been emptied.

These "zombie cars" that no one cares about have appeared all over the country. Some "occupy" the already tense parking spaces, and some even become the "living places" of homeless people.

Xiao Yan, a chongqing resident who is in the second-hand car business, once rented a parking lot in downtown Chongqing and found a black car parked in the middle of the site. Xiao Yan got in touch with the owner and wanted to buy the car from the owner. After the owner took the key, Xiao Yan found that the engine of the car exploded, the gearbox also had to be repaired, and the total maintenance cost exceeded the value of the vehicle itself, and finally gave up the acquisition, and the owner was unwilling to cooperate with the car to drive away. Due to the impact on subsequent parking, Xiao Yansui contacted the relevant departments.

"When law enforcement arrived, they found that the car had not yet reached the mandatory scrapping standards, did not have the qualifications for forced enforcement, and could only park here." I had tow the car to a corner position. Xiao Yan said.

After that, something bizarre happened. When nearby residents passed by this "zombie car", they found that there were people in the car, thinking that they were stealing the car, so they had a physical confrontation with the other party. Subsequently, I learned from the police that the other party was a nearby homeless man who regarded the "zombie car" as his living place. After the police took the tramp away, Xiao Yan and the others did not take care of this matter anymore.

Until the second half of 2021, Xiao Yan once inadvertently opened the door of this car and found that there were traces of people living inside, and there were clothes, shoes, mirrors and other items that had not been seen before. On the back of the right front seat, two words "self-help" were written with ballpoint pens. After paying attention, Xiao Yan often went to check the situation in the car during the day, although he had never seen anyone, but the items in the car were constantly changing.

"I really didn't expect that a 'zombie car' could derive such a bizarre story." It's been a few years now, and the car must have reached the mandatory scrapping standard, but I think it's too much trouble, and I'm afraid that the owner will find us a car when the time comes, so I didn't contact the law enforcement officers again. Thinking that this car is useless anyway, it is better to leave it to the homeless. Xiao Yan said.

The negative impact of the large number of "zombie cars" in reality cannot be ignored. Huang Haibo, director of the Traffic Management and Transportation Law Professional Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, believes that on the one hand, the "zombie car" encroaches on the already tense public resources of the society, aggravates the problem of urban parking difficulties, and causes waste of social public resources; on the other hand, there are potential safety hazards, such as the impact of dilapidated vehicle degradation on the environment, parking on the road of the community may affect the passage of residents, and may also affect the passage of fire and ambulance vehicles.

The legal definition is not clear

There are still difficult problems in real governance

In fact, in recent years, some places have paid attention to the problem of urban "zombie cars" and launched special clean-up activities in this regard, but "zombie cars" in the streets and alleys are still common, what is the reason behind it?

Huang Haibo analyzed that there are many reasons for the formation of "zombie cars": such as the vehicle reaches the scrapping age, the owner of the car is unwilling to scrap for various reasons or is not scrapped in time for other reasons; such as after the vehicle is stolen and robbed, the criminals abandon the car at will, the original owner does not know the whereabouts of the vehicle, and cannot effectively manage or scrap the vehicle; such as the owner of the car is missing or dead after the vehicle is forgotten for a long time; such as some vehicles have not been transferred because of the transfer, and the owner of the purchase is troublesome and unwilling to scrap the vehicle that should be scrapped.

Sun Xiaotong, section of the news and publicity section of the Guiyang Municipal Public Security Traffic Management Bureau in Guizhou Province, found that the proportion of vehicles in the "zombie cars" that meet the mandatory scrapping standard is relatively large. According to mainland law, there is no limit to the service life of private cars, but many vehicles that have been out of trial for 3 consecutive years should be forcibly scrapped. However, the amount of mandatory scrap return is low, and the amount returned to scrapped a vehicle may not be enough to cover the cost of towing the vehicle to the scrapping company. On the other hand, if vehicles that need to be forcibly scrapped are not scrapped, there is no impact on the subsequent purchase of new cars into the household. This may be an important reason why a large number of vehicles that meet the mandatory scrapping standard have become "zombie cars".

In fact, not all "zombie cars" can be cleaned up by the relevant departments.

According to Sun Xiaotong, there is currently no official clear definition of "zombie car", and the so-called "zombie car" is actually just an abstract concept. The uncertainty of definition has led to the need for categorical discussion of "zombie cars" in practice. "Some 'zombie cars' are in a state of illegal parking, and in this case, the traffic police can directly enforce the law." There are also 'zombie cars' parked in the parking line, and even some are still paying parking fees, but they have not used the vehicle, in this case, there is no penalty standard and punishment basis. ”

Taking vehicles that meet the mandatory scrapping standard as an example, Sun Xiaotong said that the Road Traffic Safety Law and the "Provisions on Mandatory Scrapping Standards for Motor Vehicles" and the "Measures for the Management of Scrapped Vehicle Recycling" and other relevant laws and regulations only stipulate that motor vehicles that meet the scrapping standards are not allowed to drive on the road, but there are no corresponding regulations on whether they are parked legally and compliantly, which also leads to law enforcement personnel helpless in the face of a large number of motor vehicles that do not violate the parking but do exist in reality. Therefore, at present, the law enforcement basis for "zombie cars" on the road is mainly illegal parking.

In November 2021, the Guiyang Municipal Public Security Traffic Management Bureau launched a special governance action for guiyang Gui'an "zombie car" for more than a month. During the event, more than 200 "zombie cars" were cleaned up, which played a positive role in maintaining traffic road safety and urban congestion.

Sun Xiaotong told reporters that the early work of the traffic management department is to clean up the illegal parking situation, and to contact the owner of the car to inform, if you get in touch with the owner, you can ask the owner to deal with it himself, but also to punish the illegal parking behavior accordingly. If you can't get in touch, you can only temporarily drag the "zombie car" to a special site for centralized storage.

However, after centralized storage, a series of problems may arise. Sun Xiaotong said that centralized storage will produce costs, and this cost can only be borne by the traffic management department at this stage. In addition, because the owner can not be contacted, so the storage time is uncertain, if the vehicle is naturally lost due to the long parking time, and then the owner comes to ask for the vehicle, the law enforcement personnel may be in a "dilemma" situation, and may even face compensation problems.

In the view of Wang Chunwei, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, there are two difficulties in governing the "zombie car": First, it is difficult to contact the owner or the person with the right to manage. The address, telephone number and other information of the "zombie car" vehicle in the traffic management department are generally reserved by the owner when purchasing the car, but the owner information may change. Second, it is limited by the procedures and costs of handling "zombie cars", for example, some vehicles have changed hands several times and have been unable to prove the ownership relationship between the vehicle and the actual owner, resulting in the inability to handle it through normal procedures.

Huang Haibo believes that vehicles belong to the private property of citizens, and there is a certain conflict between the disposal of "zombie cars" and the protection of citizens' private property rights, and the boundary between the two is not easy to grasp. If it is not handled properly, it may damage citizens' private property rights and make it difficult to enforce the law when carrying out clean-up activities.

Improve legislation to strengthen identification

Multiple measures are taken simultaneously to link governance

In response to the problem of "zombie car" governance, some places have issued more detailed policy documents.

On January 13 this year, Liuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, adopted regulations on the parking of motor vehicles, stipulating the disposal of abandoned motor vehicles: for "zombie cars" parked in public places other than public parking lots, special parking lots, and road parking spaces (such as squares, road open spaces, green spaces, etc.), the traffic management department of the public security organ shall drag the "zombie cars" to the designated parking place according to the illegal parking vehicles, and then deal with them according to regulations. For "zombie cars" parked in residential areas, they are discouraged by property service providers, owners' committees, etc. Where dissuasion is ineffective, it may be reported to the relevant departments to be present for disposition in accordance with law.

The "Guiyang City Road Traffic Safety Regulations" implemented on January 1 this year stipulates that if the occupation of abandoned vehicles in squares, public parking lots, or residential quarters affects the passage of vehicles or pedestrians, the relevant operation and management units shall notify the owner, manager or user of the vehicle to deal with it in a timely manner, and if it is not handled or cannot be contacted, it shall be reported to the competent public security transportation department in a timely manner. The competent department of public security transportation may tow the vehicle to a location that does not obstruct traffic, and inform the owner, manager or user of the vehicle to handle it within a time limit, and if it is not handled within the time limit or cannot be contacted, it will be handled in accordance with law.

For better governance of the "zombie car" problem in the future, the law enforcement officers and experts interviewed made suggestions from many aspects.

Wang Chunwei believes that first of all, legislation should be improved so that the handling of "zombie cars" can be based on laws. The "zombie car" is still a "thing" in the provisions of the civil law, and the property rights of its rights holders are equally protected by law, and no organization or individual may infringe on them. However, if the existence of "zombie cars" affects the social public interest to a certain extent, there are certain security risks, etc., then it should be governed according to law.

She mentioned that several aspects of the problem need to be solved at the legislative level, one is how to identify the "zombie car", including the basis for the identification, the procedure, and the subject (the competent unit) of the identification. For example, illegal parking, parking in a parking space or public space for more than 60 days, after contacting the owner to clearly give up or can not contact the owner within a certain period of time can be identified as a "zombie car"; the second is to identify the later handling procedures, such as the identified "zombie car", need to contact the owner or user, the manager to notify it to deal with itself, within the specified period of time, can be dragged away, scrapped and other means, the relevant costs incurred by the owner or manager bear Third, for the "zombie car" that cannot be contacted by the owner or manager, it can be temporarily towed away and stored in a designated place, and if the scrapping standard has been reached, for safety considerations and economic costs, it can be scrapped under the premise of registration. In the second and third cases, a contact mechanism may be established with a notary public, and the process of notifying the right holder and taking measures can be recorded by means of notarization, so that the legitimacy of the handling procedure can be proved in the event of a dispute.

Sun Xiaotong suggested further improving the scrapping system of vehicles, "If the vehicle meets the scrapping standards, but does not go scrapped or driven on the road, whether this 'zombie car' is illegal, whether the owner needs to bear the corresponding legal responsibility, whether the traffic police and other relevant departments can recycle such vehicles, etc., should be clear legal responsibility."

Wang also suggested giving play to the "proximity" role of properties and communities. For the "zombie car" parked in the community, the property company can do a good job in daily management, contact the owner of the abnormal parked vehicle in time to understand the situation, and propose a solution. In addition, when dealing with it, the community neighborhood committee can be asked to intervene to help solve the practical difficulties behind the parking of the "zombie car" and control the "zombie car" in a link.

"Publicity is in place, code for everyone." Wang Chunwei said that the role of the law is to set points and stop disputes, but also the lowest moral bottom line, more or to do a good job in publicity, so that everyone can abide by the law and social morality, reduce the artificially created "zombie car", supervise the owners of vehicles that meet the mandatory scrapping standards to consciously scrap, and jointly create a harmonious living environment.

(In the text, Liu Rushi and Xiao Yan are pseudonyms)

Trainee reporter Sun Tianjiao reporter Chen Lei