Myself and my husband were travelling to home town in our car around 9.30pm on a highway.
We are at 100kmph speed and suddenly one person crossed the divider with his cycle and came onto the middle of the road. He is hardly 20 feet away from the vehicle at that time. We could not avoid hitting him. His cycle fell on the windshield and it is half damaged. The person is spot dead. We stayed at the incident spot and waited until the villagers came to us. Exchanged our contact number and promised them to help his family financially even though there is no mistake on our side. 2 days later the victim's family insisted to register a police case and goto court. We agreed to it and complaint is lodged on my husband's name. Now they are demanding to settle the issue with lakhs of rupees. My husband is worried that the case might affect his career and chances of going abroad.
Few points:
1)The victim is drunk
2)Several accidents happened on the same spot earlier too due to people crossing the road recklessly.
3)Many complaints have been lodged by the colony people earlier to take preventive measures.
4)There is NO zebra crossing where the victim crossed the road.
5)The divider is full of trees and there is no chance to see who is behind them.
6) A newspaper stated: "As per constable Chanti, the incident happened when the man suddenly crossed the road with a cycle."
Even though there is no mistake from our side, why are we supposed to pay lakhs of rupees and also face the threat of having career issues?
On humanity grounds we are ready to pay them 1 lac. But they are expecting more.
Why do we have to bear this when the victim is negligent?
Is there any way that we can fight this case in the court and win it with less compensation?
Just because of the mistake of a drunken person, spending lacs is terrible. Is this justice?
Do we face any problems with abroad visa due to this?
Should we settle the case by offering money or should we fight in court?
Will there be any problem if we travel abroad in middle of this case?