Truck owner asked to pay Rs 6.48 lakh to accident victim's kin

The Thane District Motor Accident Claims Tribunal has ordered a truck owner to pay Rs 6.48 lakhs to the family of a labourer who died in an accident caused by the vehicle.
Marvet Dive (30), a labourer employed with Thane zila parishad vice president Irfan Mohd Hussain Bhure who owned the truck, met with an accident on May 15, 1999, as per the petition filed before the tribunal by claimants, including Dive's wife, four children and his parents.
Dive, after unloading material from Bhure's truck at Waret-Asnoli, was proceeding towards Bhiwandi road in the vehicle. The driver of the speeding truck lost control over the vehicle when it reached Dhondavadivali village following which it overturned causing injuries to Dive.

The labourer succumbed to his injuries in Sion Hospital on May 28, 1999.
A criminal case was registered against the truck driver for rash and negligence leading to the fatal accident of the labourer, it was stated in the petition.
The claimants had also made Oriental Insurance Company as one of the respondents, but later it transpired from the written submission by the insurance firm that the truck was not insured with it.

The tribunal, presided by Thane Principal District Judge R R Gandhi, in its recent ex-parte order against Bhure, a resident of Mahapoli of Angaon in Bhiwandi taluka, held that after assessing the annual income of the deceased at the time of the accident, the total compensation worked out to Rs 6.48 lakhs.

"I have not deducted any amount towards the personal living expenses of the deceased in the given set of circumstances because he was having seven persons dependent upon him," the judge observed in his order.
The judge ordered Bhure to pay Rs 6.48 lakhs to the claimants along with an interest at 7.50 per cent per annum from the date of application till its realisation.