"We have handled over 100 cases associated with flooded cars and engines so far since the night of July 10 when a heavy storm hit Beijing unexpectedly," said Gao Junqing, assistant manager of the Car Insurance Claim Department of China Pacific Insurance Co, ltd. (CPIC), on July 13. In light of the CPIC's policy, under the situation that a vehicle suffered from a storm or flood, the owner can claim compensation for the damaged engine caused by restarting the car when the gas vent-pipe is already flooded or engine damage due to incorrect operations.

However, some big car insurance companies announced that they would not compensate for cases like that mentioned above.

It is reported that the heavy storm on July 10 in Beijing damaged about 2,500 vehicles.

According to Wang Zhanjun, manager of Yechuan Garage of Shanghai Volkswagon, they handled over 20 storm-related cases of car damages during the night of July 10. They had to call in more hands to handle the issue.

The garage he works for has cooperation with both PICC Property and Casualty Company Limited ("PICC P&C") and the CPIC. "The compensation scope of the PICC P&C mainly focuses mainly on the inside decoration of cars. It will compensate the inside damage of a car caused by the storm, not including its flooded engine," said Wang.

Mr. Chen from the Property Insurance Department of Ping'an Insurance Co. Ltd. said that from 7 PM to 12 AM of July 10, they received over 600 phone calls, three times of usual. On July 11, they had to arrange more people to handle these problems. They paid at once for claims of 1,000 yuan (US$121) or less.

Several big insurance companies expressed that that they had not expected the rainfall would have come so fiercely. Few of them mentioned about the pre-warning system on disasters.

A report on the Beijing Evening News said that the most severely flooded areas in Beijing are the main arteries, such as the Second and Third Ring Roads, especially their sections under the overpasses. Since they are low in topography and the age-old drainage system failed to work, there was serious accumulation of water.

According to the Commanding Office of Beijing Flood and Drought Prevention, the current drainage system in Beijing's urban areas can only resist big flood that may occur only once in five years. When there is a heavy storm occurring only once in 10 years, it will be beyond the capability of the city drainage system.

Some drivers think that since their beloved cars were flooded on their way home, which led to the damage of the engines, the "chief culprit" lies in the inefficiency of the city's drainage system. Under such circumstance, they should claim their compensation from the city government.

To this question, Bo Siming, professor from the Politics and Laws Department of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and member of the China Administrative Law Research Committee, explained that such cases are not covered by the state compensation regulations.

Though this heavy storm did expose the weakness of Beijing's city drainage system, he said, according to the State Compensation Law, the government will not compensate for infringements of citizens' interest caused by public facilities. It should be compensated by units which are responsible for building the facilities or related insurance companies.

He said that only when a damage is caused by the illegal behaviors of the government can citizens apply for state compensation. Under two conditions that the government can give proper compensation: one is that the government infringe upon individuals' interest for public interests, such as house demolishing; the other is that the government has failed to do what it should have done.

"However, when ordinary people can not find anyone to compensate, when the insurance companies and city planning departments shift off responsibilities to each other, the loopholes in the State Compensation Law are exposed," Professor Bo said, "In France, when problems occurred on public facilities, the government must make compensation even if it doesn't violate the law. The United States also has similar regulation. Chinese law needs to be improved in this way."

(China Youth Daily, translated by Wang Qian for china.org.cn, July 16, 2004)