An insurance firm has been ordered to pay a man more than a million yuan (US$155,200) in compensation after he accidentally ran over his two-year-old son, a Shanghai court announced over the weekend.

The man, surnamed Wu, ran over his son who was playing beside the vehicle when he was backing out near his home in August 2020. The boy died in hospital, according to the court in suburban Qingpu District.

The boy suffered brain damage in the traffic accident, according to an analysis by the Center for Forensic Expertise of Shanghai Medical College Fudan University.

Wu failed to follow safe driving specifications and should bear the full responsibility of the accident, the police ruled.

Wu and his wife asked their insurance company for compensation of 1.38 million yuan, because the car owned by Wu’s wife was covered by their policy.

The firm refused and said the accident was beyond the coverage of either the mandatory liability insurance for traffic accident or commercial insurance. The company said the accident did not happen on a public road and the parents failed to look after their son.

The Qingpu court said the firm should take responsibility to compensate according to its agreement with the couple.

The accident happened mainly because of the vehicle and the wrong operation of Wu. The couple’s negligence partially led to the outcome, the court said, adding the insurance company should take 80 percent of the responsibility and compensate a total of 1.11 million yuan.

The judge said no insurance fraud was involved because the victim was the son of the driver, and the mishap was analyzed as a traffic accident.