MACT asks Insurance Company to payRs 64 lakh to kin of Accident Victim

An Accident Claims Tribunal in Chennai ordered an insurance firm to pay Rs 63.6 lakh as compensation to the family of a Lawyer who was killed in a road accident 3 years ago. The deceased was a panel advocate with the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation & was killed due to the rash driving by the driver of the car he was travelling in.

According to the plea moved by G Karpagavalli, her husband was travelling in a car from Tiruvannamalai to Vellore, when the driver of the car lost control of the vehicle due to his rash & negligent driving & rammed the vehicle into a tamarind tree off the road, at Munivanthangal near Polur in Tiruvannamalai district. The petitioner’s husband, Gopalakrishnan, suffered head injuries & multiple fractures, leading to his death.

The insurance firm contended that the driver of the vehicle was not in possession of a valid driving license at the time of the accident & stated that it cannot be held liable to pay compensation.

The Accident Claims Tribunal, after perusing the documents including the FIR copy, autopsy certificate, the license records of the driver, held that the accident was due to the rash & negligent driving of the driver & stated that there was a valid driving license & hence, the insurance firm is liable to pay compensation. 

It was submitted to the tribunal that the deceased was a practising advocate & was also a panel advocate with TNSTC, Kumbakonam. After computing various factors such as loss of dependency for his family, the tribunal arrived at an amount of Rs 63.6 lakh to be paid as compensation.

Of the total amount, the wife of the deceased is entitled to get Rs 22.6 lakh, while their two minor sons, aged 3 & 2 at the time of the accident will be entitled for Rs 20 lakh each & the widowed mother of the deceased Rs 1 lakh. 

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