Analysis of Incidents on Emergency Escape Ramps and Legal Risk Aversion

Emergency escape ramps (EERs) have developed much in China. But in recent years, lawsuits involving EERs have increased. The reason is that the vehicles entering the EERs cannot escape safely, resulting in the casualities and damage to the vehicle and goods. The original intention of the EERs built by the highway administrative departments is to providing escape ramps for the vehicles, and facing lawsuits was unexpected. It is an urgent problem to avoid the legal risk of EERs for the highway administrative departments. Incidents on EERs are the reason for the lawsuits. The paper analyzes six kinds of common incidents on EERs, including that the vehicles rush out of the arresters bed of the EERs, roll over in the arrester bed, the cargos extrude forward to the driving cab, roll back after stopping, collision with the existing vehicles in the arrester bed, and collision with the guardrails on both sides of the arrester bed. The paper also analyzes the reasons for the incidents on EERs, including unscientific design, improper uses, overdue maintenance, and weak operational management. It is critical to ensure that the vehicles entering the EERs stop smoothly and escape safely to avert the legal risk involved with the EERs. The paper proposes legal risk aversion programs, includingscientific, reasonable, humanized design of the EERs; putting into force the information system of the usage terms of the EERs; strengthening the maintenance and operational management of the EERs; and strengthening the publicity and guide of the EERs.