Road mishap: Kin of victim get over Rs 16 lakh compensation

Family members of a 47-year-old man, who died in a road accident involving a negligently parked truck, have been awarded a compensation of over Rs 16 lakh by a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) here.
The tribunal directed Reliance General Insurance Company Ltd, insurer of the offending truck, to pay Rs 16,16,553 as compensation to the wife and son of Delhi resident Jaipal Singhal, who died in a road accident near Kurukshetra while coming back home from Vaishno Devi shrine in a car in 2010.
"In view of testimonies of the petitioner (wife) read with certified copies of criminal record produced, no doubt is left in respect of the deceased (Singhal) having suffered fatal injuries in the accident due to negligent parking of the vehicle by the driver," MACT Presiding Officer S C Malik said.

The tribunal also relied on the post-mortem report of Singhal, FIR and documents on record while deciding the case in Singhal's favour.
According to the petition, filed by his wife, on May 26, 2010, Singhal was coming from Vaishno Devi shrine near Jammu to Delhi in a Qualis car with his family members.
When their car reached near Kurukshetra, Haryana, it collided with a truck which was wrongly parked in the middle of the road without any indicator/parking lights on, it said.

Due to the impact, all the passengers of the car suffered injuries and were taken to a local hospital where Singhal was declared as brought dead.

The plea had submitted that Singhal worked at his own stationary shop near Uttam Nagar and claimed a compensation of Rs 20 lakh.
During the trial, the driver and owner of the truck were proceeded ex-parte as they did not file any written statement.
The insurance company claimed that the owner of the truck had sold the vehicle prior to the date of the accident without informing the company and, hence it was not liable to pay.
The tribunal, however, rejected the contention of the insurance company and directed it to deposit the amount in petitioner's bank account within 30 days.