Rash driving does not always result from over-speeding

June 22, 2018

The High Court of Karnataka has observed that it is not always necessary that the offending vehicle must have exceeded its speed limit or over speeded to result into a & lsquo rash and negligent' driving. The HC made this observation while dismissing a revision petition by a lorry driver who was convicted by the trial court for rash driving. In this case, the lorry driven by the accused had hit a cyclist from his hind side, who sustained injuries resulting in his death. One of the contentions raised in the appeal was that the alleged place of accident was a traffic hit area and there were speed breakers as well the traffic signals, as such the alleged offending vehicle lorry could not run in high speed in that area. Rejecting such a contention, the court said: “ By the said statements of these witnesses that there were speed breakers and also a traffic signal near the place of accident, by itself cannot be taken that rash or negligent driving in the said area was not possible. By the word & lsquo rash driving' it cannot be automatically imagined that the vehicle alleged to be rash in its driving should also necessarily be coupled with high speed.” The court also referred to the Supreme Court judgment in Ravi Kapur v. State of Rajasthan and observed that failure to exercise the required care and caution expected to be taken by a driver in a circumstance, in which he was driving would constitute a negligent driving. “ An act of driving done without due care and caution though not coupled with high speed still results in rash driving. Therefore, in the instant case merely because there was said to be few speed breakers on the road and traffic signal near the spot of the accident, by itself cannot be deduced that there was no rash and negligent driving on the part of the driver of the offending vehicle,” the court said dismissing the revision plea.