BENGALURU: Holding that the owner, as well as the driver of a damaged vehicle left in the middle of the road, are responsible for accidents, the Karnataka High Court ruled that they are vicariously liable to pay the compensation. This is applicable in cases where accidents occurs due to their negligence, where the vehicle is left unattended, without any indicator or parking light.
As per Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunal’s order, 75 per cent liability of the compensation lies on the owner of the lorry and 25 per cent liability lies on the owner of the car for negligence by car drivers. The High Court observed that lorries parked on the middle of the road with no cautionary radiating triangle, indicators, blinkers or any other device to warn the other vehicles, amounts to negligence as per Section 122 of the Motor Vehicles Act.
The court pointed out that any vehicle that is parked on the highway must be careful so as to not be an obstruction to others travelling on the highway. “The lorry driver’s negligence is a sole cause for accidents. The driver and the lorry’s owner are vicariously liable,” the court said.
This is with respect to a case where a Miscellaneous First Appeal (MFA) was filed by Mohandas Nair and his wife Lathika from Maharashtra against Vivek Transports of Haryana and Reliance General Insurance Company Limited. In their defense, Reliance General Insurance Company Limited claimed that the lorry insurance policy was not in force on the date of the accident and the cheque for renewal of policy had bounced.
The court said that there was no evidence that non-encashment of the cheque and cancellation of the policy was duly intimated to the lorry owner by the insurance company. Therefore the insurance company was liable to satisfy the award that has been fastened against the driver and owners of the container lorry, it said.
As a result of it, the insurance company had to pay more than Rs 2 crore with 6 per cent interest to the claimants.
A CASE IN POINT
An accident occurred on November 12, 2008 at 8 pm near Kumta. The claimants were injured and three persons died. The vehicle was driven by Mohandas Nair on NH-17. Nair was unable to see clearly and crashed into a Haryana registered lorry, which was parked on the middle of the road. Two children and an adult died on the spot.