- The Maharashtra state government has decided to introduce a new policy on compensation for victims of hit-and-run accidents.
- Recently, the Supreme Court has accepted court appointed committee’s recommendation to increase the minimum compensation for death in a hit-and-run case from the existing Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh. The court has directed the centre to frame a scheme of payment of compensation to ensure that the amount is paid to the right claimant till the law is amended.
- The Maharashtra state government has recently introduced a new Road Safety Policy to reduce deaths resulting from road accidents in the state. The policy has been introduced in accordance to the Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety of the World Health Organisation. The Brasilia Declaration on road Safety has tasked Maharashtra with bringing road fatalities down to 25% of the current 13,000 deaths reported annually.
- The Brasilia Declaration was adopted at the second global high-level conference on road safety held in Brazil in 2015.It lays down recommendations on strengthening existing legislations, adopting sustainable transport and strengthening post-crash response. It calls to reduce the deaths caused due to traffic accidents by 50% by the year 2020. India is a signatory to Brasilia declaration. SDG target 3.6 calls to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020.
