Indian Law regarding Road Accident

Road Accident Near Delhi ( Picture collected from net )

Introduction

Recent years road accident have come up as a major public concern as it is one of the leading causes of death and permanent disability in this country. The latest survey conducted by National Transportation Planning and Research Center one road accident takes place in every four minutes in India. Almost 97% of the road accidents are caused by rash or negligent driving.

When a road accident takes place, driver may be liable of both civil and criminal cases depending upon the nature and cause of the accident. Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 mainly deal with issues related to road accidents. Indian Penal Code also covers certain areas when it comes to criminal liability.

Things to do in case of a road accident (Section 132 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988)

Driver should stop his vehicle and wait for a police officer for some reasonable time when he is involved in a road accident and injures any person, animal or causes damage to any other car or property.

The driver of the vehicle should not panic and he should give his name and address to the person affected by the accident and also ask for the affected person’s details.

Generally people run away from such situations mainly due to fear of public harassment, violence and criminal record. There is a possibility that people may own up to their fault but because of rampant bribery culture they think that it is safer to run away than fact potential harassment and loot by the police.

Things to do in case of injury to a person in a road accident (Section 134 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988)

It is the duty of the driver or the person in charge of the vehicle to take the injured person to the nearest hospital unless he is unable to do so due to circumstances out of his control. Such a driver should provide any kind of information to the police as and when demanded.

In case there was no police near the area of accident, such incident should be reported to the nearest police station within 24 hours of the said accident.

Information about the accident should be given to the insurer of the policy holder (driver or owner). Policy holder is the person who holds the Certificate of Insurance issued by the insurer. Information such as date, time and place of the accident, details of the person dead or injured, details of the driver of the car are important in such cases.

Things to do after a road accident

An application for compensation should be filed under the Claims Tribunal when death, injury or damage has been caused by a motor vehicle.

Such application can be filed by :-

the person who has sustained such injury;

the person whose property is damaged;

legal representatives of the person deceased or;

an agent duty authorized by the injured person or the legal representatives.

There are three modes by which aggrieved can ask for compensation:-

Principle of no fault liability (Section 140),

Structured formula basis (Section 163A),

Compensation in hit and run cases (Section161)

In the case of no fault liability principle, the claimant does not need to prove any fault or neglect on the part of the driver for receiving compensation. There is a fixed amount of compensation payable to the victim which is 50,000/- in case of death and 25,000/- in case of permanent disablement.

In case of compensation by structured formula basis, the owner of the vehicle or the authorized insurer shall be liable to pay as per the Second Schedule of the said Act to the victim or his legal representatives when such vehicle is involved in causing death or permanent disablement to any person.

The above two modes of compensation can be availed only if the identity of the car is known. Also, a claimant cannot use both methods of compensation together.

The third mode of compensation is in Hit and Run cases. Hit and run can be explained as the liability of a driver of any vehicle who is involved in a collision which damages vehicle or property of any other person or injures any other person(s) or both and who runs away without giving his name and license number as prescribed by statute to the injured party, witness or any law enforcement officer. It is a situation where the identity of the vehicle responsible for the accident is not traceable. As the identity of the driver or the owner is not traceable, a fixed amount of compensation is given to the victim or the legal representatives of the victim from funds created by the government. The claimant receives 25,000/- and 12,500/- in situation of death and grievous injury respectively.

So evidently, the compensation amount reduces by half if the driver or the car cannot be located. Therefore it is imperative to attempt to locate the wrong doer.

No time limit has been prescribed for filing claim application. Initially when the law came into force application had be filed within 6 months from the date of accident which was later increased to one year but for the welfare of the people such limitation has been deleted from the legislation.

Any person who feels aggrieved by the decision of the Claims tribunal can appeal in the High Court. There are exceptions to such appeal. Firstly, no appeal by the person who is supposed to pay any amount in terms of award given by the Claims Tribunal shall be entertained by the High Court, unless he has deposited with it rupees 25,000/- or 50% of the amount so awarded, whichever is less in the manner directed by the High Court. Secondly, no appeal shall lie against any award if the amount in the dispute is less than rupees 10,000/-.

Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 also covers the offences like over speeding, dangerous driving and drunk driving. A person should have had 30mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his/her body to be called drunk under the Act. A first time offender in the case of drunk driving could be sentenced up to 6 months imprisonment or fined up to two thousand rupees or both. A second time offender within the time gap of 3 years could be sentenced up to 2 years of imprisonment or fined up to three thousand rupees or both.

What gives rise to criminal liability in a road accident?

Accidents which are caused by the rashness or negligence of the driver give rise to criminal liability. Section 304A of the IPC covers such liability which is punishable for 2 years or fine or both. It is absolutely necessary that death or injury should be a direct result of the negligent act of the accused. If there is a third party intervention then the prosecution case would weaken. Remote or indirect connection will not give rise to any criminal liability. For example, if a driver while talking on the cell phone hits a pedestrian, he is directly responsible for such an accident. On the other hand, when a driver collides with a building and the window sill falls on a pedestrian walking by, then such driver will not be liable under this section.

A person who is driving or riding holds the ultimate duty to control his vehicle. Such a person is prima facie guilty of negligence if his vehicle dashes into something or someone unless he has reason to explain that he did everything in his power to keep the vehicle under control but the accident was inevitable.

Section 279 covers rash driving or riding on public way which is punishable by the way of imprisonment up to 6 months or fine of one thousand rupees or both. Rash driving is independent of other offences irrespective of its consequences, which means if the consequence of such rash driving is death or injury then the accused will be tried for those offences in addition to the charge under this section.

Section 336 provides that anyone who acts rashly or negligently which endangers human life or safety can be punished with imprisonment for a term up to three months or a fine of rupees 250/- or both.

Section 337 and section 338 cover causing hurt and causing grievous hurt which threatens life and safety of people. A person is liable to pay up to rupees 500/- as fine and can be sentenced imprisonment for a term of six months or both in case of causing hurt under section 337. In case of grievous hurt, the driver can be punished with imprisonment extending up to two years or fine of rupees 1000/- or both.

New Amendments :-

The Motor Vehicles(Amendment) Bill 2016, introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Sri. Nitin Gadkari, on 09.08.2016, and on 10.04.2017 Lok Sabha approved the bill for radical reforms in transport sector that will usher in multi-fold hike in fine for traffic violations, compensation of Rs 5 lakh for grave injuries, and check bogus licences and vehicle theft.

The bill, which seeks to amend nearly 30-year-old Motor Vehicle Act 1988, also calls for 100 per cent e-governance and will cap maximum liability for third party insurance at Rs 10 lakh in case of death in a motor accident.

In the present Motor Vehicle Act, there are 223 Sections out of which the Bill aims

to amend 68 sections whereas Chapters 10 has been deleted and a Chapter 11

is being replaced with new provisions to simplify third party insurance claims and 

settlement process.

The important provisions include increase in compensation for Hit & Run cases from 

Rs. 25000 to Rs. 2 lakhs. It also has provision for payment of compensation upto Rs 10 lakh 

in road accidents fatalities.

The Bill proposes that the State Government can specify a multiplier, not less than one 

and not greater than ten, to be applied to each fine under this Act and such modified fine.

The bill proposes that the State Government can regulate the activities in a public place

of pedestrians and such means of transport.

Improving delivery of services to the stakeholders using e-Governance is one of the major 

focuses of this Bill. This include enabling online learning licenses, increasing validity period 

for driving licenses, doing away with the requirements of educational qualifications for 

transport licenses are some of the features.

The Bill proposes offences committed by Juveniles. The Guardian / owner shall be deemed 

to be guilty in cases of offences by the Juveniles and Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. 

Registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled.

To improve the registration process for new vehicles, registration at the end of the dealer is 

being enabled and restrictions have been imposed on temporary registration.

In the area of road safety, bill proposes to increase penalties to act as deterrent against 

traffic violations. Stricter provisions are being proposed in respect of offences like juvenile

driving, drunken driving, driving without licence, dangerous driving, over-speeding, 

overloading etc. Stricter provisions for helmets have been introduced along with 

provisions for electronic detection of violations. To help the road accident victims, Good 

Samaritan guidelines have been incorporated in the Bill. The Bill also proposes to mandate 

the automated fitness testing for the transport vehicles with effect from 1st October 2018.

The penalties are also proposed for deliberate violation of safety/environmental 

regulations as well as body builders and spare part suppliers.

To bring harmony of the registration and licensing process, it is proposed to create National

Register for Driving Licence and National Register for Vehicle registration through 

“Vahan” & “Sarathi” platforms. This will facilitate uniformity of the process across the country.

Section		Old Provision / Penalty	New Proposed Provision / Minimum Penalties
177	General	Rs 100	Rs 500
New 177A	Rules of road regulation violation	Rs 100	Rs 500
178	Travel without ticket	RS 200	Rs 500
179	Disobedience of orders of authorities	Rs 500	Rs 2000
180	Unautorized use of vehicles without licence	Rs 1000	Rs 5000
181	Driving without licence	Rs 500	Rs 5000
182	Driving despite disqualification	Rs 500	Rs 10,000
182 B	Oversize vehicles	New	Rs 5000
183	Over speeding	Rs 400	Rs 1000 for LMV Rs 2000 for Medium passenger vehicle
184	Dangerous driving penalty	Rs 1000	Upto Rs 5000
185	Drunken driving	Rs 2000	Rs 10,000
189	Speeding / Racing	Rs 500	Rs 5,000
192 A	Vehicle without permit	upto Rs 5000	Upto Rs 10,000
193	Aggregators (violations oflicencing conditions)	New	Rs 25,000 to Rs 1,00,000
194	Overloading	Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 per extra tonne	Rs 20,000 and Rs 2000 per extra tonne
194 A	Overloading of passengers		Rs 1000 per extra passenger
194 B	Seat belt	Rs 100	Rs 1000
194 C	Overloading of two wheelers	Rs 100	Rs 2000, Disqualification for 3 months for licence
194 D	Helmets	Rs 100	Rs 1000 Disqualification for 3 months for licence
194 E	Not providing way for emergency vehicles	New	Rs 10,000
196	Driving Without Insurance	RS 1000	Rs 2000
199	Offences by Juveniles	New	Guardian / owner shall be deemed to be guilty. Rs 25,000 with 3 yrs imprisonment. For Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. Registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled
206	Power of Officers to impound documents		Suspension of driving licenses u/s 183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 194C, 194D, 194E
210 B	Offences committed by enforcing authorities		Twice the penalty under the relevant section