- (1.) ON July 19, 1973 at about 11.50 A.M. Phagu Ram was run-over and killed by the car WBF-9414. It was the case of the claimants that the deceased was walking on the left side of the road, when the car came from behind and hit into him.
(2.) THE tribunal came to the finding that the accident here was caused entirely due to the rash and negligent driving of Sahib Singh, the driver of the car. A sum of Rs. 23,000/- was awarded as compensation to the claimants, they being the widow and the minor children of the deceased. The finding of negligence recorded against the car driver was sought to be challenged in appeal. The evidence on record, however, provides no ground to sustain it. Both AW 2 Ajit Singh and AW 4 Tara Singh, the two eye witnesses examined by the claimants gave a consistant account of occurrence namely, that the deceased was walking on the left side of the road, when the car came from behind and hit into him. This accident took place about 50/60 yards from where they were. They were on the thrashing ground at that time. To lend further assurance to their testimony is the corroboration provided thereto by the First Information Report Ext. A.W. 1/A which was recorded on the statement of A.W. 2 Ajit Singh, a little over half an hour after the accident The medical evidence supports this version as the injuries on the deceased show that the car had come and hit into him from behind. It is also pertinent to note that according to the eye witness account the car had stopped, about a furlong from the place of accident and it was then brought back to where the deceased had fallen.
(3.) IT is significant to note that the driver of the car did not appear as a witness to give his version of the accident. The only witness examined by the respondent being R.W. 1 Jagdish Rai Sharma, who was travelling in the car at that time. In his testimony he no doubt, sought to take up the plea that the accident occurred when the deceased tried to go across the road, but no such version found mention in the written statement filed by Jagdish Rai Sharma. On the face of it, it was merely an after-thought. From the facts and circumstances of this case, therefore, the tribunal rightly held the car driver guilty of negligence.;