Accidental Incidents: Who is Responsible?

On the afternoon of June 27 in Ho Chi Minh City, a heavy storm occurred, causing trees to fall on various roads. Specifically:

- In the Tan Phu bus station area (from An Suong intersection towards Hoang Van Thu Park), strong wind and heavy rain uprooted a tree which fell onto the road and caused an unconscious three-wheeled motorbike driver.- On the same day, on Le Duan Street, District 1, a woman riding a motorbike past the 30/4 Park was suddenly struck by a large branch from a roadside tree, hitting both her and her vehicle.

In all cases, the victims were injured and promptly taken to emergency care.

Illustrative Image

In recent days, Ho Chi Minh City has experienced continuous storms, posing significant risks when encountering such situations on the road. There have been cases where the victims were injured, and their means of transport were severely damaged. Some instances even resulted in loss of life. However, when a falling tree accidentally injures someone, who is responsible?

According to Article 626 of the Civil Code 2005, the owner is liable for damage caused by falling or broken trees, except when the damage is entirely due to the fault of the injured party or an act of God.

Determining the owner of a tree seems easy when it's planted on a specific household’s property, but when it comes to trees on public roads, the owner is the State, specifically the urban tree management unit. The issue arises when this management unit has a contract to manage the trees from another owner. So, who is held responsible then?

According to Decree 64/2010/ND-CP on the management of urban trees, responsibility includes planning, planting, care, nurturing, protection, cutting down, and transplanting of urban trees. Thus, the urban tree management unit is responsible for these tasks. Furthermore, in contract establishment, as the party tasked by the tree owner, the urban tree management unit is obliged to manage the trees. In the event of a tree falling which causes damage to life, health, or property, the principle is that the tree owner must compensate for the damage.

However, identifying the responsibility for compensation still has many issues when the urban tree management unit considers the tree falling an "act of God" to be covered by the insurer.

Moreover, unforeseen tree falls must consider various objective and subjective causes: such as during the care process, without any machinery or equipment to assess the tree's solidity, or the risk of falling, or due to weather changes and deteriorating urban infrastructure.

Hence, determining who bears the responsibility remains an unresolved question.

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