Anxious over the increasing deaths due to potholes in the country, the Supreme Court on Friday directed a Committee chaired by a former apex court judge KS Radhakrishnan to explore possibility of fixing responsibility on Centre/States to compensate victims dying in such accidents.
Terming the number of fatalities in such incidents as “frightening”, a bench of Justices Madan B lokur and Deepak Gupta said, “So many people are dying in the country due to accident caused by potholes on roads. Reports say that more people have died due to accident caused by potholes than the deaths in terrorist attacks.”
The bench asked the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety, headed by Justice (Retd) KS Radhakrishnan to examine this “very serious issue” and file a report within two weeks.
During the hearing, the Court was informed that the issue of compensation paid to victims of hit-and-run and road accidents is pending with Parliament. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2016 fixed the amount of compensation at Rs 2 lakh in case of death and Rs 20,000 for injury in road accidents. The lok Sabha passed the proposed law but the Rajya Sabha is yet to clear it.
The Court noted another disturbing fact in a report prepared by the Justice Radhakrishnan Committee that said out of 18 crore vehicles plying across the country, only six crore have third party insurance due to which victims of road accidents are denied compensation by insurance companies. The bench asked the insurance regulatory body to examine the issue from a human point of view and consider within four weeks for making third party insurance mandatory for sale of any vehicle.