108 pilot acquitted: Driver who died was negligent, says court

Panaji: A Panaji court has acquitted an ambulance driver arrested for rash and negligent driving in a May 2022 case. The driver had dashed the Tata Winger 108 ambulance into a Santro car at Bambolim.
The driver of the Santro car, Keshave Veluskar, suffered serious injuries, and the nurse of the ambulance gave him first aid. He died while undergoing treatment at GMC.
The court stated that the deceased was found driving on the wrong side of the road and ought to have taken the service road on the left-hand side and not on the right-hand side.
The case of the prosecution was that the ambulance was proceeding from Agasaim to GMC. When it reached the service road near GMC quarters, Bambolim, it dashed into the oncoming Santro, which was proceeding from GMC Bambolim towards CBI on the Bambolim side.
“In the case at hand, it has come on record that the deceased was travelling on the wrong side and the accused (the ambulance driver) was travelling on the correct side. Therefore, the accused cannot be made liable for rashness and negligence of the deceased himself,” stated judicial magistrate first class ‘E’ court Panaji, Purva V Naik.
“From the evidence, the prosecution has failed to prove that the accused was rash and negligent, which caused the accident,” the court added.