Settle road accident insurance claims promptly

People who walk along the roads and those travelling in cars are protected from the danger of road accidents. This protection comes from the law. All owners of motor vehicles are required by law to take out insurance before they can use these cars on the road. Car owners are also required to display the certificate of insurance on the windscreen of their vehicles. This type of insurance is known as Motor Vehicle (Third Party Risks) insurance.

This insurance covers risks to third parties from loss of life and bodily injury from a road accident. Ideally, any family that loses a loved one through an accident should be compensated. These families should receive monetary compensation for the pain and suffered by their loved ones and the cost of any medical care. They should also be paid a fair estimate of the dependency they have lost. This loss of dependency is usually an estimate of the income their loved ones would have earned for the rest of their working lives.

Those who suffer injuries should receive monetary compensation for the pain and suffering they have undergone and compensation for past and future medical expenses. In deserving cases they should receive monetary compensation for loss of income during the period of injury and for loss of use of any limb and for any unsightly scars.

Over 3,000 people are killed every year and many more are permanently disabled by their injuries. Huge sums of money are used in medical care. Because most people in Kenya have no health or life insurance, involvement in a road traffic crash by a family member has dire consequences for the entire household.

Many of the accidents with high fatalities involve public service vehicles. Despite the existence of the law making motor vehicle insurance compulsory, the victims of these accidents, and the family members of those who lose their lives, in many cases have to wait for many years before receiving compensation.

There are many barriers to compensation from motor vehicle accidents. Many insurance companies do not settle accident claims until the victims file a claim in court and obtain judgments. The court process is demanding and slow.

A number of the insurance companies underwriting public service vehicles have been placed under statutory management. Blue Shield Insurance was placed under statutory management in September 2011. At the same time they obtained a moratorium. The effect of the moratorium is to stop any pending cases, any payment of judgments, and any filing of new claims.

Since 2011 no victim of an accident has obtained payment. All cases pending in court in which Blue Shield was the insurer have stalled. Families that lost their breadwinners in road accidents have been left destitute.

United Insurance Company was also placed under statutory management. A moratorium, similar to that of Blue Shield Insurance, stopped all payments of claims and any pending cases of road accidents.

There are no statistics of how many victims have cases pending in court that they cannot prosecute because of moratoriums favouring insurance companies.

There are no statistics of how many judgments have not been paid, and what the total liability of the insurance companies for these judgments is. There are no statistics of how many new claims are still pending.

No amount of money can restore an active healthy adult who becomes a paraplegic in a motor vehicle accident. No monetary compensation can bring back to life a person who dies in a road accident. The objective of the law making motor vehicle insurance compulsory is to help the victims by compensating them monetarily for their loss.

The delay in the settling of these claims, and the global moratoriums imposed by the courts to protect insurance companies defeats the noble purpose of this law.