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According to the Motor Vehicles Act, a third party is any person who is not the insured or the insurer and includes the Government. Pedestrians constitute a large section of third parties. The pedestrians have not only a right to use the footpath but also occasionally to use the road and also cross it. Fare-paying passengers are those who are carried in a public service vehicle.
The owner of the vehicle has a legal duty not only to provide roadworthy vehicles but also to appoint competent drivers. The owner’s responsibility commences from the time the passenger enters the vehicle and continues until he alights from it.
Any accident in the interim period is the responsibility of the owner. Non-fare paying passengers are those who are allowed to travel in the vehicle by gratis. In other words, owner of goods traveling in the goods vehicle hired by him for transportation of his goods is a non-fare paying passenger.
Passengers allowed travel on humanitarian grounds are also non-fare paying passengers.
The duty of the vehicle owner towards such passengers is to provide them with a reasonably safe mode of conveyance. Persons in other vehicles like drivers, the owner or passengers are also third parties. Children are not expected to exercise the same care as adults and therefore the driver of a motor vehicle has to show extra care towards children on the roads.