The government is preparing to increase the amount of compensation for people who lost their lives in road accidents. The Ministry of Road Transport has finalized rules for an eight-fold increase in compensation for deaths in hit-and-run cases in which the vehicles involved could not be identified. Similarly, in case of death and grievous injuries in road accidents involving insured vehicles, the compensation under ‘no fault liability’ will be increased by 10 times.
The purpose of increasing the amount of compensation is to provide quick relief to the victims and their families. According to a report in Times of India, the compensation for the person killed in any hit and run case will be fixed at Rs 2 lakh, which is Rs 25,000 at present. At the same time, 50,000 rupees will be given in case of serious injury. The seriously injured are currently given a compensation of Rs 12,500.
According to the official figures of 2019, 29,354 people died and 67,751 people were injured in hit-and-run cases in the country. Since in such cases the culprit is not caught. Therefore the government will create a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund and compensation will be given from it.
Similarly, in road accidents in which the vehicle and its owner can be traced, the ministry has proposed to increase the compensation. In such cases a compensation of Rs 5 lakh in case of death and Rs 2.5 in case of grievous injury will be paid by the insurance company providing third party coverage.
The number of road accidents has come down in the last two years and has decreased by about 18% during the last year. The government has claimed reduction in accidents due to the amended Motor Vehicle Act. According to the Ministry of Road Transport, where there were 4.7 lakh accidents in 2018. At the same time, this number came down to 4.5 lakhs in 2019 and 3.6 lakhs last year.