Road mishap victims likely to get more compensation

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is proposing to bring an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 in the coming winter session of Parliament to increase the compensation. As per the proposal before the Ministry, the minimum compensation for death in hit-and-run cases will be Rs 1 lakh from the existing Rs 25,000. For death of non-earning persons it will be Rs 1 lakh (for children below 5-years old) and Rs 1.5 lakh for those above 5-years, sources in the Ministry told Deccan Herald.

The minimum compensation for death of an earning person is Rs 1 lakh from the existing Rs 50,000 and the maximum will be Rs 12 lakh against the prevailing Rs 4.8 lakh. However, the maximum will be decided on the basis of the victim’s earnings as well as age.

In the case of total disability of an earning person, the Ministry proposes to increase the compensation from existing Rs 7.20 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

India has earned the dubious distinction of registering the second highest number of road accidents in a year, according to World Road Statistics (WRS) 2007 data.

According to the data, the total number of people killed in road accidents was 94,985, next only to China where 98,738 people killed.