4.3.22

Cops will now probe all road crashes

The government has made it mandatory for police to investigate all road accident cases that occur on and after April 1 and also ordered that cops will have to intimate about accidents to motor accident claim tribunals and insurance firms within 48 hours. The road transport ministry has made it mandatory for incorporation of validated mobile numbers in the insurance certificates. The rules, aimed at faster disposal of cases and quick disbursal of compensations, have set the mandatory procedure for investigation of road accidents, preparation of detailed accident reports, and fixing timelines for different stakeholders for quick settlement of claims by the MACT.

As per the notification, the police will have to visit the accident spots, collect evidence and intimate to the MACT about the accidents so that the process starts quickly. The investigation officer will be duty bound to inform the victims or their legal representatives about their rights and claims.

The changes have been made following a Delhi HC order which had directed the Centre to adopt the model, which has been successfully done in Delhi. This has drastically cut the time period for getting the compensation. The rules have specified the responsibility and timeline that all the stakeholders to give the medicolegal and postmortem reports.

Soon vehicles will have one more sticker on the windscreen to display their “fitness” status. Currently, all four wheelers and above category of vehicles have the mandatory FASTag on their screens and the ones in Delhi have one more — colour-coded sticker indicating the fuel type. In a draft notification, the road transport and highways ministry has proposed mentioning the details of validity of fitness (in format DD-MM-YYYY) and registration number of the vehicle. Sources said this is aimed at better enforcement as displaying such details will help detect vehicles with expired fitness test certificates.Moreover, the vehicle failing in a fitness test will  be the only condition for phasing out or scrapping old ones from road and records as well.

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