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MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Wednesday, upholding a decade-old order of equal contributory negligence in a priest with Parkinson’s getting knocked down by a bus of the Thane Municipal Transport Corporation (TMCT), called for discipline and rule following among pedestrians and motorists.
The HC came down on citizens’ tendency to cross roads at places other than the pedestrian crossing at signals. “It is high time that we, as responsible citizens, follow the rules and regulations while crossing the road and by following signals. Merely because there are no vehicles coming from either side, people should not cross the road when the signals clearly show that they are not supposed to cross the road,” said Justice Jitendra Jain on April 8, while also calling for strict police action against vehicles that break signals, due to which accidents are rising.Justice Jain, in the order available on Thursday, said he found the April 2016 order of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Thane, was not perverse, but enhanced the compensation from the original Rs 13.23 lakh to Rs 15.15 lakh. The priest’s kin sought enhanced compensation. The TMCT did not challenge the tribunal’s order.He suffered from Parkinson’s and was partially paralytic, the HC observed, adding that a person suffering from such a disease has a tendency to fall and he should have been accompanied by someone while crossing a busy road, even if it were only a fellow pedestrian or bystander.
He crossed where there was no signal and “therefore, to some extent the negligence certainly is attributable to” the victim. The HC, however, also said the bus driver, observing the person from a higher height, should have realised that a person limping is making an attempt to cross the road and he should have been more careful.
“Though he had applied the brakes, but it was too late in the day,” the HC observed. The family sought Rs 1 lakh for the suffering of dependents for four months.
The HC said their suffering can’t be ignored, and awarded Rs 50,000 for their pain.The HC said, “It is generally observed that the people cross the road ignoring the signals, which results in accidental death or injury,” and said even vehicles, “more particularly people driving two-wheelers, do not follow the signal rules and regulations and at times this has resulted in death and injury of not only the persons driving two-wheelers but also other innocent people.
The traffic police, though doing commendable job, should take strict action against the people driving two-wheelers and violating the signal rules.
”Justice Jain said it was “high time” Indians inculcate “civic sense” and use it. He said “we should learn from the developed countries how the people driving the vehicle and also how people crossing the road behave in these countries. Even we as Indians, when we travel abroad, we follow the rules and regulations of the foreign country while crossing and driving.
I do not see any reason why we should not follow the rules and regulations of our country while we return and are staying in India.
There cannot be any justification for not following the same.”Justice Jain said elders break rules even when accompanied by children who learn from observation and thus it is a “moral duty and obligation” of elders and parents to follow rules when driving and crossing roads so that children learn the basic rules. The HC directed a copy of its order to be circulated to top officers of the Regional Transport Office.
