Thane, Jul 4 The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) in Thane on Saturday awarded total compensation of Rs 1.32 crore to the families of two software engineers who were killed in a road accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in 2018.
Challapalli Lekhi Chaitanya (27) and Mannem Venkata Sai Kumar (24), employees of Hexaware Technologies in Navi Mumbai, died on December 24 that year after their car rammed into a truck ahead that suddenly applied brakes on a bridge near Tembari village in Raigad district.
The insurer contended that the car driver was solely negligent for failing to maintain a safe distance.
The MACT, however, determined that while the truck driver stopped abruptly without warning, the car driver was also partly responsible for not maintaining a safe distance, holding the car driver contributorily negligent to the extent of 15 per cent.
In Chaitanya's case, the court calculated the total damages at Rs 89,91,866, but after deducting 15 per cent for contributory negligence, awarded Rs 76,43,086 to his mother Anne Rajani.
In Sai Kumar's case, the court applied the principle of composite negligence as he was a passenger. It ordered the truck's insurer to pay the entire assessed sum of Rs 56,39,700 to his parents, Mannem Padmavati and Mannem Satyanarayana.
In his order, MACT member RV Mohite also said the offending container truck was plying without a valid permit and fitness certificate at the time of the accident.
