Indian-origin doctor in UK directed to pay Rs 1.41 crore to schoolgirl she hit with car in 2018

The consultant physician hit the girl, now 18, who had stepped onto the pedestrian crossing when the light was green for traffic, the Oxford Mail newspaper reported on Saturday.

She was also “left with cognitive and psychiatric problems” and suffered nightmares and “PTSD-type symptoms for the first year after the accident”, according to court documents.

In a judgement published last week, Deputy High Court Judge Dexter Dias KC ordered Dr Chandran to pay the girl 135,000 pounds (Rs 1.41 crore) in damages.

The case brought by the girl was that Dr Chandran’s negligence caused the incident, that she “was driving too fast given the prevailing conditions and if she were driving at a safe and reasonable speed, the collision would not have happened”.

The court found that the defendant was primarily responsible for the collision and apportioned liability 60/40 in the claimant’s favour. It determined a 40 per cent reduction in the initially proposed GBP 225,000 damages “because of the contributory negligence of the claimant stepping out into the road while the traffic lights were green for traffic,” the report said.