K K SHARMA Vs. NIRMAL SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) EIGHT persons were travelling on a tractor trolley HRX-799. Six out of them, namely, Ram Chander, Surinder Kumar, Ramji Das, Madan Lal, Ram Singh and one other were killed when it met with an accident with one truck HYE-2282 coming from the opposite direction. This happened on November 19, 1981, at about 8 p. m. in the area of police station Sadhaura in district Ambala. The Tribunal held the truck driver to be wholly to blame for the accident and awarded Rs. 40,000 as compensation to the mother, widow and children of Ram Chander, deceased, Rs. 16,000 and Rs. 40,000 respectively to the parents of Surinder Kumar and Ramji Das, deceased, Rs. 87,552 to the widow and children of Madan Lal, deceased and Rs. 90,000 to the widow and children of Ram Singh, deceased.

(2.) THE finding of negligence recorded against the truck driver warrants no interference in appeal. According to the claimant, the tractor was being driven on its correct side of the road when the bus came from the opposite direction at a very high speed and hit it. It may be mentioned here that this truck was loaded with paddy straw which was bulging far beyond the body of the truck.

(3.) THE truck driver sought to lay the blame for this accident upon the driver of the tractor by putting forth the version that the tractor had come on to the road from a side road and rammed into the truck. It was said that another truck had just overtaken this truck and a lot of dust had been raised thereby and it was before this dust had cleared that the tractor came and hit the truck.