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Key Highlights The accident fund will be used for free of cost immediate medical help to grievously injured victims for first few hours.

The fund will also be used to compensate family members of dead and seriously injured in hit and run cases.

NEW DELHI: Government will soon provide universal insurance cover to all those who get injured in road crashes so that they are not deprived of immediate medical care. In a significant move, the road transport ministry in its proposed amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act has provisioned for a fund that will ensure free treatment of grievously injured victims.

The amendment bill introduced in Lok Sabha on Tuesday has proposed setting up a motor vehicle accident fund, which will be used for medical expenses of grievous hurt persons till they stabilise.

The provision gains importance considering the fact that at least five lakh people were left injured in road crashes last year and according to government reports at least 50% lives can be saved, if they get quick medical care within the first one hour of a crash. Road crashes claimed 1.46 lakh lives in 2015.

According to the bill, the fund can be created by collecting certain cess or tax, any grant or loan made by the central government or any other source of finance as may be prescribed by the government. "The fund shall be constituted for the purpose of providing compulsory insurance cover to all road users in the territory of India," it says.

The bill states the fund shall be utilised for treatment of grievously hurt persons, for paying compensation to representatives of persons killed or seriously hurt in hit and run motor crashes.

Government would come out with the maximum liability amount that shall be paid in each case. It also says in cases of people who have medical or life insurance cover, the payment made by government shall be deducted from the claim they receive from the insurance companies.

The bill also provisions that the central government shall launch a scheme for cashless treatment of victims of the road crashes during the golden hour (first hour of crashes).

Ministry sources said while the procedure for implementation of these schemes shall be laid once the bill is passed by Parliament, the focus has to be on setting up trauma care centres that are close to roads and highways.

Though for long the government has laid emphasis on building specialised trauma care centres all along the golden quadrilateral, not much has happened so far.

