Comment

Offcourt...

The surprise arrival of Saudi Royal 100,000 (about Rs 10 lakh ) as compensation for the death of Omariddin Bhutta in a car crash in Riyadh should be like a jackpot for his impoverished family living in a remote village of Rajasthan.

Bhutta was the sole earning member in his family. He had come under the wheels of King Khaled's driver in 1981. When the king found out about the accident, he wanted the compensation to be paid immediately. He died three years later in 1984.

Delayed justice is not the sole prerogative of the Indian dispensation system. King Khaled’s command also remained on paper for 26 years until a court accepted a plea in this regard by his daughter Princess Moudhi bin Khaled ibn Abdul Aziz. She pleaded that it was her father’s wish that compensation should be paid to the family members of Bhutta.

The court listened to the plea of the princess and accepted it. The money was immediately sent to Bhutta's family in India.

This incident drives home the moot point that road accidents are blind to the status of its victims. From Bhutta to political heavyweights like Rajesh Pilot or Sahib Singh Verma — who died in a crash on Saturday — anyone can fall prey to a gruesome death on the road. No one is safe as long as rowdy drivers are not taken to task.

A fortnight ago, the Supreme Court had compared the deaths in road accidents to an epidemic. The ever-elusive political will is needed to combat this crisis by amending the law. Causing death by negligent or rash driving should be a major offence, attracting exemplary jail term for the guilty.

It is feared that by next year about 1.20 lakh people could die in road accidents if the existing rate of mishaps is not checked.

Globally, nearly 1.2 million people are killed every year in road accidents. At least 50 million are injured or disabled in road mishaps in the world.

“In developing countries, each vehicle is much more lethal than the vehicles in developed countries because it takes the lives of not just the occupants of the vehicle, but of innocent people walking on the road,” Justices Arijit Pasayat and D K Jain recently observed.

Road accidents don’t just take lives. They also have a far-reaching impact on a country’s economy. According to an estimate, accidents cost developing countries between 3 and 5 per cent of its financial strength.

The estimated annual cost of accidents in developing countries exceeds $100b that is double the total development assistance these countries receive every year from bilateral and multi-lateral organisations.

Mind you, the estimated annual cost of accidents across the world is about $500b. This should be prevented by bringing mindless, reckless and rowdy drivers to task.