Long road to compensation

The proposed law is inadequate to assuage the agony of road accident victims

Though one person dies in road accident every three minutes, which is up from 15 deaths every hour in 2010, the law of compensation has moved little in the past quarter century. Inflation and the rising cost of litigation are not seriously recognised by motor accident claims tribunals and the appellate courts. According to the transport ministry, the average claim for road fatalities between 2010 and 2016 was Rs 300,000 to Rs 500,000.

There have been four amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, and the latest is still pending because of objections from several states raising questions of federalism. Its