The husband fell into the water and died while trying to avoid the traffic police. The wife claimed more than 2 million yuan in compensation, but the court rejected it.

On April 3, 2024, Zhou from Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, drank some wine when he attended a company dinner. After drinking, he was on his way home on a motorcycle when he encountered a car inspection by the traffic police brigade of Meixian District Branch of Meizhou Public Security Bureau. In order to avoid the car inspection, he abandoned his car and jumped off the riverside greenway 6 meters above the road, and then climbed over the greenway railing and drowned. His wife, Ms. Chen, believed that when her husband fell into the water, the traffic police “did not save him”. For this reason, she and her family applied for compensation of more than 2 million yuan.

On April 29 this year, the “Administrative Ruling” made by the Guangdong Higher People’s Court held that Zhou jumped into the river to evade the inspection of the traffic police duty point and drowned. After the incident, the traffic police brigade immediately organized relevant units and departments to conduct search and rescue work for Zhou. There was no situation of not saving Zhou from falling into the water, and the result of the second instance judgment was not improper. Based on this, the Guangdong Higher People’s Court ruled to reject Ms. Chen’s application for retrial.

Family members:

Drowning caused by traffic police checking cars, claim for compensation of more than 2 million yuan

On the evening of April 3, 2024, 55-year-old Zhou rode a motorcycle home after attending a company dinner. At around 21:00 that day, when he was riding his bike through the river bank section near Chengjiang Bridge in Chengjiang Town, Meixian District, Meizhou City, he encountered the traffic police brigade of Meixian District Branch of Meizhou Public Security Bureau, which was setting up a checkpoint to check cars. Seeing this, Zhou turned around and stopped the car and fled.

On October 18, 2024, the first-instance judgment issued by the People’s Court of Xingning City stated the content of Zhou’s family’s statement to the court: the on-duty traffic police immediately followed Zhou after seeing him turn around. After Zhou found that he was followed by the on-duty traffic police, he jumped from the river bank section to the flowers along the river below… Seeing this, the on-duty traffic police immediately dispatched a police car to go upstream along the Chengjiang River to the upstream river bank more than 1,000 meters away to intercept Zhou. Zhou saw that there were police cars blocking him in front and traffic police chasing him from behind, so he jumped into the Chengjiang River.

The first-instance judgment stated the statement of Zhou’s family: After the incident, the on-duty traffic police did not immediately come forward to rescue him, and stopped to check, resulting in Zhou, who was not familiar with water, not being able to get timely rescue, and eventually drowned. Based on this, Zhou’s family sued the Meixian District Branch of the Meizhou Public Security Bureau and the Traffic Police Brigade of the Meixian District Branch of the Meizhou Public Security Bureau to the court to request confirmation that the law enforcement procedures and law enforcement actions against Zhou that night were illegal; and demanded payment of death compensation, living expenses for dependents, loss of work, transportation expenses, etc., totaling 2,004,129 yuan.

The defendant, the Meixian District Branch of the Meizhou Public Security Bureau, responded that it organized police forces to carry out night inspections on the Chengjiang River embankment section that night, and the law enforcement procedures and law enforcement actions were legal. There was no causal relationship between the death of the party Zhou and the defendant’s law enforcement actions.

According to the police, Zhou “jumped into the Chengjiang River and disappeared” that night, and “after the incident, the defendant (police) immediately organized police forces, the school, the Shuguang Rescue Team, 120 and other forces to search and rescue on the scene.” However, it was not until April 7, 2024 that the search and rescue team found a floating corpse in the Jindebao section of the Chengjiang River, which was confirmed to be Zhou, the party on the night of the incident.

Meizhou Public Security Bureau Meixian District Branch stated that the on-duty police force did not have any contact with the party Zhou during the law enforcement process, nor did they intercept, chase or intimidate him. After discovering that Zhou jumped into the grass along the Chengjiang River, they have been taking relevant legal measures to search and rescue him, and there was no law enforcement fault during the law enforcement process.

The Traffic Police Brigade of Meixian District Branch of Meizhou Public Security Bureau stated that it is a subordinate unit of Meixian District Branch of Meizhou Public Security Bureau. The night inspection operation to rectify traffic violations that night was an enforcement activity carried out under the leadership and organization of Meixian District Branch of Meizhou Public Security Bureau. It is not a qualified administrative defendant in this case. In addition, its defense opinion is consistent with that of the defendant Meixian District Branch of Meizhou Public Security Bureau.

Court:

There is no such thing as watching someone die without rescuing him, and the appeal is rejected

The judgment of the first instance shows that the focus of the dispute in this case is: during the night inspection operation carried out by the traffic police brigade that night, did the relevant law enforcement personnel take active rescue actions when Zhou jumped into the Chengjiang River? Should these actions be confirmed as illegal? Should the plaintiff (Zhou’s family) claim for 2,004,129 yuan be supported?

The People’s Court of Xingning City believes that Zhou drank white wine that night. In order to evade legal punishment, he turned around and abandoned his car a few dozen meters away from the duty point, crossed the road on foot, climbed over the railings and jumped off the river bank greenway, and then jumped into the Chengjiang River and drowned. After the law enforcement police found that Zhou had jumped into the Chengjiang River, they shouted for him to come ashore, and immediately called 110, 120, the rescue team, and the search and rescue team, and notified the ambulance to the scene, etc. The search and rescue operation lasted until about 3 am the next day. It can be seen that the Meixian District Public Security Bureau and the Traffic Police Brigade have fulfilled their obligation to provide timely rescue. The plaintiff now requests to confirm the behavior of the two defendants for not rescuing in time (not saving the dying), which is not supported by this court in accordance with the law.

The court also does not support the plaintiff’s claim. The Xingning Municipal People’s Court believes that at that time, even if the party Zhou was drunk, according to the general social cognition, it is not enough to take the way of running away and jumping into the river, which is very likely to cause personal injury and death, to deal with the inspection of the traffic police. However, in order to evade the inspection, Zhou jumped into the river and drowned. The damage was caused by Zhou’s own behavior and had no direct causal relationship with the vehicle inspection operation carried out by the defendant. Based on this, the court believes that the two defendants should not bear the liability for compensation and do not support the relevant amount of the plaintiff’s claim.

Dissatisfied with the first-instance judgment, the plaintiff appealed to the Meizhou Intermediate People’s Court. The plaintiff believes that the first-instance determination of the facts is wrong. Zhou accidentally fell into the water, not directly jumped into the water. “Zhou does not know how to swim, and there is no subjective intention and objective possibility to jump into the water to escape arrest.” The plaintiff also believed that the traffic police’s law enforcement behavior was not wrong before Zhou fell into the water, but after he fell into the water, the traffic police should have switched to timely rescue. The family believes that there is a causal relationship between the failure to rescue in time and Zhou’s drowning. Based on this, his appeal requested the revocation of the first-instance judgment and the revision of the judgment to support all his claims.

The Meizhou Intermediate People’s Court held that after the incident, the respondent took active rescue measures and there was no fact of not saving the dying. As an adult, Zhou should have foreseen the possible consequences of jumping into the river to evade inspection, and he should be responsible for his own consequences. In addition, the premise of state compensation is that the performance of duties infringes upon legitimate rights and interests, and the law enforcement behavior of the two respondents does not violate the law. The appellant’s request for compensation of 2004129 yuan from the two respondents has no factual basis and legal basis, and is not supported according to law.

Accordingly, on December 18, 2024, the Meizhou Intermediate People’s Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment. Zhou’s wife, Ms. Chen, and others were dissatisfied with this and applied to the Guangdong Higher People’s Court for a retrial. The Administrative Ruling (2025) Yuexingshen No. 417 issued by the Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court stated, “After review, this court believes that according to the evidence in the original trial, Zhou jumped into the river to escape the inspection of the traffic police duty point and drowned. After the incident, the Traffic Police Brigade of Meixian District Branch of Meizhou Municipal Public Security Bureau immediately organized relevant units and departments to search and rescue Zhou, and there was no situation of watching Zhou fall into the water and not saving him. The result of the second instance judgment is not improper.” Based on this, the court ruled to reject the retrial application of Zhou’s family.

Zhou’s wife, Ms. Chen, told Red Star News that she will apply to the Meizhou People’s Procuratorate for administrative supervision, hoping that the police will fully disclose the law enforcement records of that night.