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-   -   Volvo Bus Accident 18th May 2007 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/43779-volvo-bus-accident-18th-may-2007-a.html)

please: Advice me what to do.

On May 18th, 2007, I & my wife were traveling to Pune in MSRTC's Volvo bus which departed from Dadar at 09.30 Am in the morning. We were given seats behind driver's seat. i.e. seat nos.3 & 4. (Asiad A.C.Bus Shivneri, Starting from Dadar)

At Khalapur, because of rash driving & driver's negligence our bus met with an accident with a water tanker. We both were very seriously injured & were taken to hospital at Panvel. After two days we were shifted to Shushrusha hospital at Shivaji Park. MSRTC gave us immediate help money of Rs. 500/- :Frustrati

No one from MSRTC ever bothered to come & see us or other injured people. Our total expenses for hospitalization & medicine etc came to around Rs. 13 lacs.

MSRTC has given us Rs. 5 lacs as an advance towards our total expenses for hospitalization & medicine after we met the top bosses of MSRTC & explained them our financial condition.

Now for our compensation MSRTC says they do not have provision in their corporate policy to give compensation for sufferings, loss of income, partial disability etc. Secondly, from our actual hospitalization & medical expenses they have deducted some amount and wish to give us only this amount as our "Full & final settelment of the claim. I am a businessman & my wife is professor.

At present we do not have any money to run our house & fulfill the needs of our children for their education. Also we have to repay, those who have helped us financially for hospitalization & medicine. Myself & my wife we have undergone 5 to 6 operations each. We have rods in our body at present. We can not travel in bus or train.

I would like to have your friendly advice on this matter. If we go to court it would take 20 years to settle the claim & still we can not be sure of getting the same.

Please guide us what to do.

Await reply @ s.jathar@rediffmail.com, Regards,
Jathar

Man, that is sad. How are you and how is your wife?

Instead of going to normal court you can try going to a consumer court.

It will not only get you all the expense and also money for the mental agony you faced.

What I know it is much quicker than the normal courts .Your case should not take more than 6 months.

sorry to hear about it. glad you are ok.
What about insurance? What did they say?

Aren't their vehicles insured. I guess commercial vehicles are also insured for damages/injury to goods/passengers they are carrying.

Consumer court will be the one to seek help from.

That is really sad. But the good thing is that both of you are now out of danger, and in the process of recovering.

Like many have already said, try the consumer court they would be able to give you the quickest possible help rather than going through a normal court.

However, a speedy recovery to you and your wife and pray things work towards your favour soon.

Be strong.

Too sad to hear that. We pray god for your well wishing.

I think as others said, it is surely the consumer court which can help you. Btw, is there any clause that excludes this claims in the tickets? Because, there are too many fine prints in some of the tickets saying, they are NOT responsible for any loss, theft etc. So, just curious if that applies to accident too.

That is a shocking story!

Regardless of what is printed on their tickets, the consumer court will take a pragmatic view and decide.

Shouldn't their insurance handle such claims?? Where are our legal eagles. Teknophobia saab?

That said, my prayers are with you - so many operations, so much cost and still in pain.

Hi shripad. Sorry to hear about it.It was really a major accident.
My first question to you is out of 13 lacs of total medical expenses how much they have kept aside which they will give to you after you sign full and final settlement paper?
My second question is how much have compensation have you asked for in terms of financial and monetary loss?
are you and your wife having accidental insurance policy?
since they have used there corporate accidental insurance policy for your treatment it almost sure that they will not give in your compensation claims for which you will have to go to court.
in court they can counter that inspite you guys having your personal accidental policy (in case you guys have and if they know about it) they as a responsible organisation have taken upon themselves and stuff like that.
maxj2005 is right. Your only option is consumer court where in you can claim genuine compensation but for that you might have to forget your balance amount for medical expenses till it is resolved.
Your case is strong enough provided you demand genuine compensation but for that you need time and patience.
Regards.

Sorry to hear about your accident. May Allah bless you and your family.

I think customer court is a better option as delay would not be high.
What about claiming third party insurance from the vehicle or any personal insurance?

The commercial vehicles are coverd under insurance, at least in gujarat.

Go to consumer court for help.

Hey, when a motor vehicle meets with an accident, damages are to be claimed under the Motor Vehicles Act itself. You have to approach the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal.

It is surprising that no "ambulance chaser" aka motor accident claims lawyer approached you while you were hospitalised. AFAICT, (at least in Kerala) the moment a person is hospitalised due to motor accidents, even before he is administered first aid, an ambulance chaser's agent will approach him with free advice on how to make money out of the predicament. (This has bad AND good effects).

I will not advise going to consumer court - your claim will be above 5 lakhs, and you will have to approach the state consumer forum, and procedure is more time consuming there.

Forget about whether the MSRTC bus is at fault or not. According to you, the water tanker too was involved, and that vehicle too will have insurance coverage. In the motor accidents claims tribunal, you can make both the tanker (its owner, driver and insurer) respondents - an option you do not have in consumer courts. And even if the vehicle has no insurance, the owner still is liable to make the payment. Your lawyer will tell you how.

And being educated (at least your wife is), it is surprising that consulting a lawyer never occured to you.

Also, I cannot figure out how MSRTC paid 5 lakh to you just like that. (even if they are guilty, they simply cannot pay out that kind of money because it is a state run organisation). That is not the kind of money they pay out even in case of deaths.

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Dear friend
Thanks for your consideration for me. Looking at all the replies what I have received I can confirm that I have to move to consumer forum & not consumer court, I do not know the diff. in this. My claim amount is to the tune of Rs. 60 to Rs. 70 lakhs. I am dealer of gemstones & jewelry & my wife as I said before was professor & HOD in medical college.

MSRTC has gone out of the way to pay us this Rs. 5 lakhs advance because of our contacts & financial condition that time. We did not even have money to run the house & take care of children's education. For this we are very thankful to MSRTC.

Consulting lawyer did approach us but we were in high trauma to discuss this matter with him. We do have appointed one high court lawyer for this matter. My friend in insurance also suggested to put claim against water tanker. I am considering all these factors. My lawyer says we have to wait for the "wordings" MSRTC use in their letter for further amount what they have decided to give us. The earlier payment was an advance aginst the hospitalization & medicene . i.e Rs. 5 lakhs against our actual expenses of Rs. 13 lakhs (we have submitted all our original bills to MSRTC)

So, I will now head towards consumer court / forum at the earliest. Hoping for the best.
Thanks. :)

Everyone else is right. Consult a lawyer first and follow his instructions. I remember seeing the picture of the Volvo bus in the news papers. Glad to know that you are recovering. May God bless you.

Although it may sound like a stupid idea, but how about contacting Times of India about your plight? They had featured a story on this particular bus, and since you are one of the survivors from that bus, it makes sense to cover your life post accident. I am sure they can also arrange for some financial help to cover your medication.