How bizarre: 2 dead, but KSRTC says no accident took place

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: Though two people died and another was severely injured, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) maintained that no accident involving its bus took place. The High Court, however, rejected this contention while awarding compensation to the victims. Justice NS Sanjay Gowda heard a batch of petitions and gave a common judgement recently.

Three persons; R Ravi, SR Ravi and Harish AS were travelling on a motorcycle on March 3, 2011 at around 1.45 am when they met with an accident involving a KSRTC bus near Maddur. R Ravi and SR Ravi died in the accident, while Harish suffered serious injuries. The families of the deceased and Harish claimed compensation.

The KSRTC however contended that their “bus had not met with an accident and the entire claim was speculative.” The Motor Vehicles Tribunal concluded that the accident did occur and awarded compensation. A sum of Rs 5,89,000 was awarded for the death of R Ravi, Rs 7,30,136 for the death of SR Ravi and Rs 7,13,000 for the injuries suffered by Harish by the Tribunals.

The KSRTC filed appeals in all three instances before the HC and contended that the “allegation that an accident took place between the KSRTC bus and the motorcycle was absolutely false. It is stated that taking advantage of the fact that KSRTC was on the said road, the KSRTC is sought to be implicated.”

KSRTC produced inspection reports to show that there was no damage on the KSRTC bus in question. The bus driver L Lingaraju and conductor CR Shivaramegowda also stated that their bus was not involved in an accident. The traffic controller of the KSRTC had conducted a spot inspection and submitted a report stating that an accident had taken place but the bus was not involved.

The HC however said that “It was absolutely unnecessary for the traffic controller to have conducted a spot inspection on the very next day and submit a report. The fact that the spot inspection was conducted by the traffic controller by itself indicates that he was informed of an accident and this was the reason for him to conduct an investigation.”

The HC also noted that R Ravi, before his death, had recorded a statement before the police that a KSRTC bus had hit the motorbike. Based on this, the police were able to pinpoint the bus that was at the accident location at the time of the accident. The bus was plying between Male Mahadeshwara Hill and Bengaluru.

The HC also rejected the evidence of the conductor of the bus. It said it cannot be accepted “primarily because the accident occurred during the wee hours of the morning and the conductor would be seated in a position where he would have no visibility of the surroundings of the bus.”

On the other hand, the evidence of the driver “will have to be viewed with circumspection since he had been chargesheeted by the police and as an obvious defence he would have to necessarily deny the occurrence of the accident.” All three appeals of the KSRTC were dismissed by the court.