HARNAM SINGH Vs. AAR PEE AUTO AID

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A car travelling on the main highway between Amrit-sar and Pathankot suddenly went off the road and hit into a tree resulting in the death of the car driver and two others travelling in it, one of whom was Sarbjit Singh, Section Officer in the Mechanical Drainage Division, Ferozepore, Punjab. This happened near Pathankot soon after midnight on May 22, 1974.

(2.) THE Tribunal negatived the claim for compensation of the parents of Sarbjit Singh, deceased, holding that this was an inevitable accident caused by a tyre burst and not due to any rash or negligent driving by the car driver.

(3.) THE claimants blamed this accident upon the rash and negligent driving of the car driver. It was their case that the car was being driven at a very high speed, as a result of which the driver lost control and hit against a tree on the wrong side of the road. The plea of the owner of the car as also the respondent-insurance company with which the car had been insured, on the other hand, was that this was an accident pure and simple as it occurred on account of the left front tyre of the car bursting, resulting in loss of control over the vehicle and it hitting into the tree on the right side of the road.