States must fund hit-and-run victims: Supreme Court panel

A Supreme Court-appointed panel on road safety on Friday said states must fund treatment of victims in all hit-and-run cases and recommended a total ban on sale of alcohol on state and national highways, besides removal of hoardings distracting drivers.

The committee headed by former SC judge Justice K S Radhakrishnan issued as many as 13 specific directions to the states to enforce in order to reduce road accidents which in 2013 claimed lives of as many as 1,42,011 people.

Interacting with mediapersons, the committee, also comprising S Sundar, former secretary, Ministry of Surface Transport and Nishi Mittal, ex-chief scientist, Central Road Research Institute, also expressed concern over the fact that 70 per cent of the vehicles were plying on road without insurance.

“We are of the view in all hit-and-run cases, states are required to fund the treatment of the victims, since it is their job to identify the vehicles,” the panel said. 

The committee was set up on April 22 last by the Supreme Court on the basis of a PIL to measure and monitor the implementation of road safety laws in the country.Noting that India has one per cent of total vehicle population in the world and a staggering 10 per cent of road accident related deaths, the committee asked the states to follow its directions by June 30.

The panel also noted the difference in the data on accident deaths collected by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the state government as the figures recorded in 2013 showed such deaths as 1,37,572 and 1,42,011 respectively.

The committee has, so far, submitted three reports to the apex court from October last year to March 2015.