Every accident on Chennai streets is a bonus for some traffic policemen in the city.
“Yes, there is a nexus between a few traffic policemen and lawyers in the city,” admitted a senior police official.
“Every time an accident takes place, the traffic policeman or a hospital ward boy tips off their favourite accident claim lawyer who approaches the victim with a promise to procure the claim for them. The policemen then pocket a sizeable share of the claim with the help of the lawyers,” said the police official.
Referring a lawyer would seem harmless. “It is not illegal, but it is not ethical. It naturally makes the traffic policemen in the investigation wing wish for more accidents,” pointed out another official.
Some traffic policemen also help substitute a driver without a license with a person having a valid licence. “Some of them even create records for accidents that never took place,” said another official, adding that senior officials should make sure that their subordinates do not indulge in such malpractices.
Even senior officials from insurance companies confirm that they had noticed the nexus. “In third-party motor claims especially we have seen a lot of instances where policemen pass on the information on
accidents to a lawyer that they know.
The lawyers contact the claimants and persuade them to make a claim and offer help in procuring the claim,” said the motor claims head of a large general insurance firm.
“In cases where the registration number of the vehicle that caused the accident is not known, lawyers arbitrarily place a claim on some registration number and some random insurance company. We get to know about this much later,” said the insurance official.
“Policemen are the first to arrive at any accident spot and we have to depend on their version as it is not our job to investigate,” he said.