MADURAI: The Madras High Court Bench here has increased the compensation awarded by a motor accident claims tribunal to the parents and minor brother of a second year MBBS student who died after being crushed under the rear wheels of a container truck while attempting to overtake the vehicle on his motorcycle on Tiruchendur Road in October 2010.
Partly allowing an appeal preferred by them, a Division Bench of Justices R. Subbiah and J. Nisha Banu enhanced the compensation from Rs. 8.67 lakh, awarded by the tribunal, to Rs. 21 lakh after determining the notional monthly income that the deceased could have earned if he had been alive, to be Rs. 18,000 as against Rs. 10,000, determined by the tribunal.
The judges, however, refused to interfere with the tribunal’s decision that the claimants would have to forego 20 per cent of the award amount towards contributory negligence since an eye witness to the incident had categorically deposed before the lower court that the student had died only on hitting the rear side of the truck and getting caught under the rear wheel.
