According to CCTV and other media reports: On January 5, a student at Ludong University in Yantai, Shandong Province, was hit on the head by an ice pick falling from the sky and fell to the ground, causing concern. As a result of the accident, the student suffered severe head injuries and died after rescue efforts failed. The official Weibo of the Ministry of Emergency Management reposted the picture of @中国weather to popularize science knowledge, and issued a reminder, it is recommended to clear the roof snow in time after the snowfall, which will help prevent the formation of ice ridges, and try not to walk under the eaves and high-rise buildings after the snow, in case the ice ridges suddenly break and fall and be smashed.
Screenshot of the video
Because the ice picks in the eaves and other places are not cleaned in time, people and vehicles are often smashed. According to reports, on February 24, 2023, a woman in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, was walking when an ice pick fell from a section of the eaves, and the woman was hit by ice blocks before she could dodge. On December 17, 2023, downstairs of a unit in Zhifu District, Yantai, Shandong Province, a car was smashed through the rear windshield by an ice pick falling from the eaves. On December 24, 2023, Ms. Ni from Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, was driving when she was hit by a suddenly falling ice cube, and the hood of her car was smashed into a "pit" nearly 1 meter wide.
How to prevent the safety hazards caused by ice picks, and who is responsible for the safety once an accident occurs?
The "icicle wounding" incident has aroused concern
The division of responsibilities is not yet known
"The ice pick is the size of a double bed and has an irregular shape. According to media reports, some witnesses said that they saw the icicle falling at the time of the incident, and they warned but it was too late, and the student who was smashed wanted to hide but did not dodge, and the student suffered a head injury after being smashed. The report also said that the location of the incident was the entrance of the ground floor of Building 3 of the South Campus of Ludong University, and some netizens said that the first and second floors of the building had been rented, and the third floor and above were student dormitories.
Tianyancha App shows that in February last year, Ludong University announced the winning announcement of the annual campus property service outsourcing project, and the winning bidder for the campus property service of the school's main campus (South Campus and North Campus) was Shandong Riverside Property Management Co., Ltd., with a winning bid amount of more than 7.7 million yuan. Among them, the campus environmental service requirements include: the establishment of emergency plans for bad weather such as flood season, rain and snow, and the cleaning and snow removal and de-icing work of the main roads, steps, squares and surrounding roads of buildings in the service area shall be undertaken by Party B. The cleaning management requirements of the student apartment include: no garbage, weeds, no random parking of vehicles around the apartment, and timely cleaning in snowy days.
In November 2023, the official website of Ludong University released the "Announcement on the Transaction of the Roofing Safety Hazard Remediation Project of the 3# Student Apartment in the South District", which shows that the project transaction supplier is Yantai Yongsheng Construction Development Co., Ltd., with a total transaction amount of 849,600 yuan, but the specific content involved in the project is not listed in the announcement.
A local government official told a reporter from Nandu on January 6 that the incident occurred on the side of the road outside Ludong University, "and it is not clear how to deal with it in the future and how to divide the specific responsibilities." A merchant on the second floor near the location of the incident told the reporter that the local area had cleaned up the ice picks under the eaves before the incident. On January 8, the Red Star News reporter called the Propaganda Department of Ludong University and other departments to inquire about the situation, but did not know more details.
What to do if an ice pick appears?
Industry insiders: depending on the situation, you can find properties, developers, communities, 119
An industry insider in charge of coordinating the snow clearing work in a sanitation department in Liaoning told the Red Star News reporter that ice skates (ice picks) and icy pavements are two more prominent safety hazards caused by ice after rain and snow. However, if it is an ice pick with a large size, the cause is usually special, such as the solar water heater freezes, the pipe bursts, the water pipe bursts, or the heating bursts, etc., a large ice pick will be produced. "If there is a big ice pick with potential safety hazards, you can find the community property to be responsible for the property, and if you don't have the property, you can find the real estate developer to be responsible, and the community can also be responsible for repairing and coordinating the solution, if the above units can't solve it, and it needs to be dealt with urgently, call 119. The industry insider said.
In practice, in the face of the potential safety hazards caused by ice picks under the eaves, it is often the community, the person in charge of the house, the fire department and other parties that work together. Taking the cleaning of ice picks in the four village communities of Wuhan City as an example, according to Jimu News, on December 21, 2023, Wuhan was affected by strong cold air and the temperature fluctuated greatly, and the staff of the four villages of Huaqiao Street, Jiang'an District, Wuhan City, found in their daily inspections that several rows of "ice skates" were hung on the eaves of an 8-storey empty building on the side of the road at No. 163 Jiangda Road, which had a potential safety hazard of falling ice as the temperature rose.
After the community staff found the hidden danger, they immediately contacted the staff of the building unit to explain the situation and contact the firefighters, and at the same time set up a cordon at the scene and posted warning signs to remind residents to take a detour. After receiving the call for help, the firefighters and the person in charge of the house immediately rushed to the scene, and the firefighters came to the window of the empty building and used sticks, pickaxes and other tools to clean up the ice picks.
Similarly, according to Beijing Daily, at about 10 a.m. on January 30, 2023, the temperature in Beijing has warmed up, and the outdoor temperature has reached 8 degrees Celsius.
What should I do if an icicle hurts someone?
Lawyer: the property owner, the user, the manager or the responsibility of the building
Deng Qianqiu, a lawyer at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, said that ice picks are hanging objects formed after snow and rain freeze on buildings. Because the hanging object is dangerous to the pedestrians below, the property owner, manager or user of the corresponding building has the responsibility to clean up the ice pick in time or take other measures to avoid the ice pick from causing injury to the passers-by.
"Being injured by a falling icicle is a special tort in civil law. Deng Qianqiu said that according to Article 1253 of the Civil Code, the property owner, manager or user of the corresponding building should first be presumed to be at fault, and bear tort liability accordingly. The property owner, manager or user may provide evidence to prove that he or she is not at fault, for example, the property owner or manager may prove that he has promptly notified the property management company to clean up, but the property management company has not cleaned up in time, or the property management company may prove that it has carried out timely cleaning and that the icicle was thrown by others, etc.
"If the evidence is sustained, the tort liability may not be borne. At the same time, if a pedestrian who has been hit by an ice pick knows or should know that there is an ice pick hanging under the building, but still chooses to walk under it, he or she is also at fault and should bear certain responsibility for the occurrence of damage. The specific proportion of responsibility is to be comprehensively determined by the judge on the basis of the facts of the case and the evidence presented by each party. Deng Qianqiu said.
Fu Jian, director of Henan Zejin Law Firm, said that the occurrence of such incidents has caused great harm to individuals and families, and also poses a threat to social and public safety. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the title unit and property manager to regularly inspect and maintain the building, especially during the winter months, to ensure that there are no potential hazards.
"If the property owner or property manager fails to do their duty, they may need to pay a high amount of compensation. Therefore, prevention is the best strategy, and regular inspection and maintenance can greatly reduce the probability of such events, thus saving a lot of economic costs. Fu Jian said. (Red Star News)