In recent years, the fire accidents caused by electric bicycles have increased rapidly, seriously threatening the safety of people's lives and property, and the rectification work is imminent. The executive meeting of the State Council held recently made special arrangements for the rectification of the whole chain of potential safety hazards of electric bicycles, emphasizing the need to pay attention to the combination of system governance and dredging, strengthen standard guidance and regulatory law enforcement, improve supporting services and support policies, and better meet the needs of the masses while strengthening safety supervision. What are the safety risks of electric bicycles? What are the root causes of the problem? How should various departments strengthen supervision? How should procuratorial organs participate in the rectification of the whole chain? In this regard, the reporter of "Procuratorate Daily" conducted an in-depth interview and investigation.
From instant delivery workers such as food delivery workers and couriers to short-distance travel needs such as office workers and students, electric bicycles have become an important means of transportation. On April 7, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that the current number of electric bicycles in the whole society has reached 350 million.
While electric bicycles bring convenience to our lives, there are also many "problems", because the safety accidents caused by them are shocking. According to statistics from the National Fire and Rescue Administration, a total of 21,000 electric bicycle fires will be reported nationwide in 2023, an increase of 17.4% compared with 2022. What are the safety risks of electric bicycles, and how to prevent and make travel safer? In this regard, the reporter conducted an interview and investigation.
"Sick" batteries are full of hidden dangers
The battery is one of the core components of an electric bike. On March 2, according to the Beijing Daily client, 80% of e-bike fires occurred while charging, and more than half of them occurred during night charging.
"You buy the car first, and then talk about the battery after buying the car!" "The national standard is 25 kilometers per hour, and it can reach a speed of 40 to 60 kilometers per hour after decoding. ”...... Recently, in a district of Tianjin, several shared bicycle riders ran to more than 20 electric bicycle distribution points, rental points, and battery recycling stores. These cyclists are actually procuratorial officers from the Second Branch of the Tianjin Municipal Procuratorate, and this time, as special "customers", they are investigating the safety of electric bicycles in the jurisdiction.
Through many visits, the procuratorial cadres and police have figured out the whole chain industrial model of electric bicycle production, sales, maintenance and recycling. "We found that in order to pursue low prices and make huge profits, some small battery production workshops buy replaced second-hand batteries from the Internet or other channels, reassemble the battery cells and replace the shell, and then sell them for a second time. Ren Jing, the prosecutor of the court, told reporters.
A battery with a safety hazard is like a time bomb, which can cause heavy losses in the event of an accident.
In October 2022, the Shanghai Xuhui District Procuratorate intervened in an explosion caused by an electric vehicle in accordance with the law. The picture shows the prosecutor and the staff of the fire department visiting the scene of the crime.
In the early morning of October 2022, an explosion suddenly came from Room 102 of a residential building in a residential area in Shanghai, and the tenants Ji and his wife were trapped. After the accident, the Shanghai Xuhui District Procuratorate intervened in accordance with the law. After investigation, the investigators found that the house involved was leased by Xiang from the owner of the house, and in order to share the rent, Xiang divided the original two bedrooms and two living rooms into five rooms, Xiang and his family lived in two bedrooms, and the remaining three rooms were rented to five tenants including Ji. Ji is a delivery rider with 3 e-bikes. Previously, in order to improve the endurance of electric bicycles, Ji purchased 60V batteries with a nominal voltage higher than the 48V of electric bicycles, and often took the batteries home to charge them for convenience. On the night of the incident, the battery was being charged in the house.
In August 2023, after the Xuhui District Procuratorate initiated a public prosecution, the court sentenced Xiang to the corresponding punishment for the crime of fire.
In order to promote the transformation of the public safety governance model to pre-prevention, in November 2023, the Xuhui District Procuratorate issued procuratorial recommendations to the community property in accordance with the law in response to the fire safety management problems exposed in this accident.
"Batteries are at the greatest risk. Yang Lei, legal counsel of an electric vehicle manufacturer, said that small workshops without any production qualifications mainly produce lithium batteries in two ways, one is to reassemble the cells in the eliminated batteries, and the other is to buy the cells produced by small factories to assemble lithium batteries, because of the cheap price, these batteries are very popular with consumers.
Zhang Jiajun, deputy dean and professor of Zhengzhou University Law School, has been paying close attention to the safety accident of electric bicycles. He believes that the illegal modification of batteries, for the labeled suspected infringement of others' intellectual property rights, and for the unlabeled battery, can only be grasped by the market supervision and other departments from the source, for some small enterprises to carry out strict inspection, once found illegal behavior to be severely punished.
Lu Yun, director of the Consumer Rights and Interests Legal Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, also said that electric bicycles are often qualified when they leave the factory, and the assembly of their battery packs, speed limit regulations and speed limit rings are all in accordance with the regulations. However, when it comes to the sales process, in order to meet the needs of consumers to increase the speed or increase the storage capacity of the battery, the seller carries out illegal operations, such as cutting off the speed limiting ring and connecting the battery pack in parallel, which brings great hidden dangers to the safety of electric bicycles.
"Problematic" vehicles frequently "go to work"
In addition to battery safety risks, safety accidents caused by chargers cannot be ignored. After searching on the shopping platform with "electric bicycle charger" as the keyword, the reporter found that all kinds of chargers that are significantly lower than the brand's genuine price abound.
"Charger overload protection is a very important component, once the voltage is unstable or the temperature is too high during charging, the overload protection can automatically power off to prevent safety accidents. Ren Jing told reporters that although some chargers sold online are attractively priced, the safety is difficult to guarantee.
In November 2022, Jiangsu dismantled a gang that made and sold counterfeit chargers. "The charger was hot and bulging, and then I returned it to the store and found that this was still the case. Mr. Wang, who lives in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, previously spent 15 yuan online to buy a certain brand of electric bicycle charger, but there was a problem during the charging process. After Mr. Wang called the police, Li Moumou and others were arrested.
"The chargers we produce are much thinner than the original power cords, and the quality of the components is also different, and the circuit boards, fans, housings, and logo stickers inside the chargers are all bought from the town and reassembled. "In the review and prosecution stage, the criminal suspect Li Moumou confessed to the criminal facts of shoddy battery manufacturing. In February this year, the Yizheng City Procuratorate of Jiangsu Province prosecuted Li Moumou and others for the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks and illegally manufacturing and selling illegally manufactured registered trademark logos. At present, the case is being further handled.
In addition to counterfeit and shoddy chargers, illegal modification is also an important cause of electric bicycle safety accidents. In January this year, the Beijing Municipal Fire Brigade reported an electric bicycle accident case, and there was a fire caused by a faulty line caused by vehicle modification (the owner installed an electric heating handle without permission).
"There is no place to charge electric bicycles in the community, and you can't take the battery home to charge, so you can only pull the cable. "It takes 5 hours for an ordinary electric bike to be fully charged, and 7 to 8 hours for a larger battery, and the charging price can reach six or seven cents per hour. ”...... The reporter noticed that problems such as difficult and expensive charging were also flooded in the social media message area.
In fact, "flying wire charging" is more risky. On the evening of March 13 this year, a fire broke out in the corridor of a residential building in Ezhou City, Hubei Province, and many people in the building were trapped. After on-site investigation, the cause of the fire was that Yin, a resident of the building, illegally parked his electric bicycle and illegally connected the wires to charge the electric bicycle, igniting the surrounding combustibles. In the end, Yin was administratively detained for 15 days in accordance with the law.
"When 'flying wire charging', the wiring board is exposed to the sun and rain outdoors, which is easy to cause the aging of the insulation material, resulting in leakage and short circuit, and increasing the risk of fire. In addition, if an electric vehicle fires occur in buildings, passages, and yards, it is easy to ignite the surrounding combustibles and expand the fire. Yang Lei told reporters.
How to prevent "burning" before it "burns"
Recently, the prosecutor of the Xichuan County Procuratorate of Henan Province and the fire rescue personnel went to the community to carry out the rectification of the fire safety problem of electric bicycles.
"In fact, there are not many laws that clearly regulate the frequent accidents of electric bicycles. Zhang Jiajun said.
According to the reporter's inquiry, in 2019, the "new national standard" of electric bicycles and the "Safety Technical Specifications for Electric Bicycles" were implemented, which stipulated that the maximum design speed should not exceed 25km/h, the vehicle mass of the fully assembled electric bicycle should be less than or equal to 55kg, and the nominal voltage of the battery should be less than or equal to 48V. On July 1, 2023, the first "mandatory national standard" GB 42296-2022 "Safety Technical Requirements for Chargers for Electric Bicycles" in the field of electric bicycle chargers was implemented, clarifying the national standard for the "new national standard" charger of electric bicycles.
"The Fire Protection Law and other legal provisions do not stipulate the charging of electric bicycles, let alone the charging places, but only regulate fire safety as a whole. In this sense, there is a lack of laws and regulations directly targeting the charging of electric bicycles in the mainland. Zhang Jiajun believes that the current situation of regulating the frequent fires caused by electric bicycle charging requires the introduction of relevant laws.
In fact, in order to solve the problems of insufficient charging pile facilities and "flying wire charging", many places have been actively exploring. For example, the "Shanghai Municipal Regulations on the Safety Management of Non-motor Vehicles" expressly prohibits the sale of assembled, installed and modified non-motor vehicles, and stipulates that it is not allowed to violate the safety requirements of electricity and privately pull wires and sockets to charge electric bicycles.
To this end, Zhang Jiajun suggested that to promote the safety traceability of electric bicycles, it is necessary for the procuratorate, fire and other functional departments, communities and community properties to work together to do a good job of publicity while investigating and dealing with violations, so that people are fully aware of the harm and seriousness of illegal charging of electric vehicles, and at the same time suggest that the procuratorate actively promote the special governance of public interest litigation on the issue of illegal charging of electric bicycles.
Regarding the increasingly popular second-hand electric bicycle trading market, Lu Yun said: "At present, there is no way for electric bicycles to be tested by a third party like a car, and then it is impossible to judge the newness, danger, safety and driving range of the battery. Lu Yun pointed out that for second-hand electric bicycle trading operators should strengthen the obligation to inform, the trading platform should also timely check the relevant information of electric vehicles, or in a significant way to remind both parties, especially the buyer, in the transaction process should pay attention to the inspection of relevant materials to ensure quality and safety.
The problem of safe charging of electric bicycles has also aroused the attention of Xing Yuntang, a deputy to the National People's Congress and a driver of the EMU of the 3Trees Locomotive Depot of China Railway Harbin Bureau Group Co., Ltd. "The charging and storage of electric bicycles is not a simple technical or management problem, but a comprehensive problem involving urban planning, infrastructure construction, policy formulation, environmental protection and other levels. Xing Yuntang suggested that the state should introduce unified standards for the setting of charging piles, improve the policies and regulations on the management of electric bicycles, and increase supervision and implementation. By improving the relevant regulations, the parking and charging standards of battery cars are clarified. At the same time, the behavior of residents should be regulated and the punishment for violations should be increased.
Strengthen the safety hazards of electric bicycles
Whole chain remediation
Deputy Director of the Eighth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate
Qiu Jinghui
Procuratorial public interest litigation participation in the whole chain of rectification is aimed at protecting national interests and social public interests, focusing on ensuring the uniform and correct implementation of relevant national laws such as the Criminal Law, the Production Safety Law, the Fire Protection Law, the Product Quality Law, and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, and should play an important role in the national supervision system. The procuratorial organs' lawful conduct of public interest litigation against illegal acts that cause the hidden danger of major safety accidents is conducive to grasping small problems at an early stage, preventing them from becoming small, and exemplary compliance with the Constitution and laws, and is also in line with the original intention of the system design to reverse the administrative chaos in some localities and departments and prevent some symptomatic problems from turning into criminal offenses.
First of all, it is necessary to urge the key minority to play a key role. The whole chain rectification requires strengthening standard guidance and regulatory law enforcement. The "Circular on Studying and Making Good Use of the Criteria for Determining the Hidden Dangers of Major Accidents" issued by the Office of the State Council Safety Committee is a specific test for local party and government leading cadres to enhance their political judgment, political comprehension, and political execution. The "Regulations on the Safety Production Responsibility System for Local Party and Government Leading Cadres" emphasizes that "we must insist on managing the safety of the industry, the safety of the business, and the safety of production and operation", "clarify the safety production supervision departments of all types of production and business units in the region in accordance with the principle of hierarchical territorial management", "organize and implement the construction of a working mechanism for hierarchical control of safety risks and hidden danger investigation, treatment and prevention, guide the special rectification and joint law enforcement actions of production safety, and organize the investigation and punishment of all kinds of violations of laws and regulations". On this basis, the procuratorate may submit a special report to the local party committee and government in combination with supervision and case handling, assist the local party and government in improving the normalized production safety responsibility system and long-term working mechanism on the basis of the overall promotion of the whole chain rectification, and optimize the top-level design and strengthen system supervision for the formulation and implementation of the judgment standards for major accidents of electric bicycles, and contribute to local practical experience.
Secondly, it is necessary to open up the "two pulses of appointment and supervision" of coordination and cooperation. Implement the "Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Deepening the Comprehensive Supervision of Departments", and effectively enhance the performance responsibilities and supervision of relevant departments involved in the production, sales, use, parking, charging, scrapping and recycling of electric bicycles in special rectification, target management, emergency management, investigation and punishment of illegal production and operation behaviors, etc. When judging and confirming whether to perform duties and responsibilities, comprehensively consider factors such as job responsibilities, performance conditions, and performance conditions, and maximize the enthusiasm, creativity, and cohesion of relevant departments and their staff. In particular, we should strengthen the cross-departmental joint monitoring of risks and hidden dangers, strengthen the linkage between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, vigorously promote the exchange and sharing of regulatory information, and create conditions for the development and application of big data legal supervision models for the whole chain of rectification of potential safety hazards of electric bicycles.
Thirdly, it is necessary to summarize the successful experience of replication and promotion. The Shanghai procuratorate has cracked down on illegal "spelling, adding, and modification" through special online and offline supervision, and promoted the inclusion of non-illegal parking and non-flying wire charging into the residents' autonomy convention, activating the daily inspection and reporting responsibilities of property management companies; Chengdu procuratorate has promoted local improvement of the division of responsibilities for the safety supervision of electric bicycle lithium battery intelligent battery swapping sites and the construction of smart battery swapping cabinets; Jiangxi Yudu County Procuratorate has submitted the "Research Report on the Construction and Use of Charging Piles in Residential Communities" to the county government in combination with the case handling The Yongkang Municipal Procuratorate of Zhejiang Province combined with the special action of "procuratorial protection of enterprises" to urge the coordinated functional departments to guide the compliance of enterprises, upgrade the digital integrated supervision platform for lithium battery production enterprises, and realize digital real-time monitoring and risk alarm. These successful experiences provide a procuratorial plan for the combination of dredging and blocking, and systematic governance in order to speed up the resolution of stock risks, effectively curb incremental risks, promote the improvement of supporting services and support policies, and better meet the needs of the masses.