Jun 7, 2012

Need for instant settlement mechanism and policy for minor road incidents.


For a safer city

Nature of most of minor traffic accidents which involves two or more than two parties is such that damage is caused less due to the incident but more due to post incident rage, argument and settlement process. And unfortunately people are left to settle the issue on their own in lack of immediate settlement and relief mechanism when the incident occurs. Irony is that insurance provision is there for major damages of life and assets due to accident but no immediate functional rescue and settlement system with an agreed token amount/ repair coupon system etc. for minor accidents involving two or more parties which leads to road rage and is much frequent and growing phenomenon in many developing countries.

It’s high time that government need to intervene and come up with a policy which is acceptable to majority of transport community and common man to deal with issues of road rage. Government in consultation with insurance providers, enforcement agencies and community should prepare a full-fledged compulsory instant settlement mechanism and policy which should work even in absence of law enforcement personals, for minor road incidents  involving low damage to asset and no damage to life, incidents like scratch on car body, vehicle being hit by other vehicle with minimal damage, thing like that which can lead to small to major road rage incidents. A scheme which help neutralise the anger and argument between two or more involved parties, leaving them with a win win situation. Some strategies can be like making compulsory blanket third party insurance system for even minor road incidents with focus on on-the-spot monetary settlement or agreement in addition to the said policy.

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