Deaths in road accidents due to potholes frightening,SC

The Supreme Court on Friday described as “frightening” the deaths in accidents caused due to potholes on roads across the country and said that number of fatalities in such incidents was more than those in terror attacks.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that persons who have lost their lives as a result of accidents caused due to potholes should be entitled to compensation.

Hearing a PIL filed by S Rajseekaran on road safety, the bench said it was a matter of "common knowledge" that a large number of people have died in accidents caused due to potholes on roads, and authorities, who were supposed to maintain the roads, were not doing their duties properly.

“So many people are dying in the country due to accidents caused by potholes on roads. Reports say that more people have died due to accidents caused by potholes than the deaths in terrorist attacks,” the bench said.

The court asked the Supreme Court Committee on road safety, headed by former apex court judge Justice K S Radhakrishnan, to look into this "very serious issue" and file a report within two weeks.

“It is frightening. It is about life or death,” the bench said.

The court decided to defer passing an order on issue of compensation to be paid to the victims of hit-and-run and road accidents, after it was told that the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2016, which revised the amount of compensation to Rs 2 lakh in case of death and Rs 20,000 for injury in road accidents, has been passed by Lok Sabha and may come up for consideration in Rajya Sabha.