If a passenger is injured while driving the bus, a ruling has been made that the bus company cannot avoid liability for damages to the injured passenger by stating that the driver was not at fault unless it was due to the intentional or suicide of the passenger.
The Civil Division 2 of the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Lee Dong-won) recently filed a plaintiff in a lawsuit (2021 Da 257705) filed by the National Health Insurance Corporation against Company B to which bus driver A belongs and the National Association of Bus Transportation Business Associations that signed an insurance contract with Company B. The lower court overturned the ruling and returned the case to the Busan District Court.
In July 2017, a passenger C was injured in an accident in the bus that A was driving. While A was stopping the bus at a bus stop in Dongnae-gu, Busan to get on and off passengers, C got up from his seat, carried his bag, and fell backwards in the recoil of the bus and injured his back.
The National Health Insurance Corporation paid about 970,000 won, excluding C’s co-payment, of the 1.1 million won for C’s treatment expenses to a nursing institution, and filed a lawsuit against Company B and the Federation for the amount.
The first and second trial courts acknowledged that passenger C was injured while driving the bus, but ruled against the plaintiff, saying, “The accident was entirely the fault of Mr. C, not Mr. A, who drove the bus.”
However, the Supreme Court said, “Article 3 of the Automobile Damage Compensation Guarantee Act stipulates, ‘A person who operates a motor vehicle for his/her own sake shall be responsible for compensating for the damage if his/her driving causes the death or injury of another person. This is not the case when a passenger is killed or injured as a result of the accident.”
“This means that when a passenger is riding in a car, it is integrated with the risk of the car and the risk is greater than that of a non-passenger. It is the intent that the company is responsible for compensating for damage caused by injuries to passengers regardless of whether or not the driver was at fault unless they claim or prove it.”
“It cannot be considered that the liability of Company B, etc. for damage caused by the injury of C cannot be considered as being exempted because it cannot be proven that the accident was caused by intentional or suicidal act of passenger C,” he said.
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