2023 accident: Engineer’s family to be paid Rs 2.21 crore compensation

The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal directed the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation to give Rs 2.21 crore as compensation to family members of a 30-year-old engineer, who was knocked down by a state transport bus in 2023.

On December 21, 2023, Aniket Dabholkar, a junior engineer with the Konkan Railway, and a resident of Chiplun in Ratnagiri district, went out to buy vegetables with his father. While his father was making the purchase, he stood near his scooter, when a speeding bus hit him, causing grievous injuries, to which he succumbed to later. While the MSRTC had claimed that the accident occurred as a biker riding ahead of the bus suddenly braked, the tribunal said that the police probe showed that the bus driver was speeding. It said that it could not be said that the victim was at fault because his vehicle was parked and he was standing to the side.

“The very fact that the driver of the offending bus drove the vehicle at a high speed and recklessly and caused the accident resulting in death of a person standing still by the side of the road, indicates negligence on part of the driver,” the tribunal said in the order passed on December 12.

The tribunal took into account the salary of the victim at the time of the accident, which was Rs 1 lakh and calculated the compensation taking into account what his future prospects would have been, as laid down in law. It directed that the major part of the compensation be paid to his wife and son and remaining to his parents.