A Motor Accident Claims Tribunal has ordered over Rs. 48 lakhs in compensation to the widow and two minor children of a 33-year-old driver who lost his life after a speeding motorcycle hit him in 2015.
The unfortunate incident had taken place on Feb 8, 2015 when Sanjay Surnar, a Dahisar resident, employed with a travel firm, was walking by Dahisar checknaka on Penkar pada road. As per the claim petition filed by his family, he had reached near Raj Industries, Kashimira, Thane when the speeding motorcycle being driven in the opposite direction knocked him down. He sustained serious head injuries and was admitted to hospital. He died during treatment four days later.
The insurance firm Reliance Gen Insurance Co. Ltd. had contended that the accident took place due to Surnar’s negligence. The tribunal did not accept this argument and stated that the company did not examine the driver of the offending bike to prove it.
Tribunal member AM Chandekar said in his judgment that the deceased was a pedestrian. It cited a police probe paper and said that it appears that the spot of the incident is a road having a width of 25 feet. It also pointed out that it was daytime and that it was for the driver of the offending vehicle to avoid the accident. “The manner in which the accident occured itself is sufficient to hold that the offending vehicle was driven rashly and negligently during the accident,” member Chandekar stated in his order.
To decide the compensation, the tribunal had considered the testimony of Surnar’s employer, who deposed that he is in the business of Tours and Travels and that Surnar had been working as a driver for him since 2013. He also produced a salary certificate to prove that he paid the victim Rs. 15,000 monthly.
The tribunal ordered that of the total compensation, to be jointly or separately paid by the bike owner and the insurance company, 40 percent be paid to Surnar’s widow. The balance 60 percent it directed to be deposited equally in the names of the victim’s children as a fixed deposit at a nationalised bank till they attain the age of 18.
