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The issuance of Compulsory Third Party Policy Insurance (CTPI) in Fiji has come under the spotlight, with an aggressive push now by the Consumer Council of Fiji to highlight weaknesses relating to compensation claims and the update of relevant legislations to be fair to victims of Fiji’s road accidents.
The Council launched its campaign in Suva yesterday with the theme: “Insurance in Fiji: who profits, who pays, who loses?”
“The measly sum that a third party victim is allowed to receive under current legislations governing third party insurance is an insult to our right to life being loosely protected without due consideration to fair redress,” said Council chief executive officer Premila Kumar.
“Millions of dollars are paid out annually to insurance companies in the form of compulsory third party insurance by consumers of public and private transportation. Bus owners for example pay insurance premium between $353 to $400 per bus for accident cover; that is either $40,000 for a whole bus or $4000 for a passenger. When compensation for a busload of 40 passengers is calculated, each passenger ends up receiving $1000 each. If an individual passenger in a vehicle accident claims, he or she may receive a maximum of $4000 only,” she added.
Kumar said victims of road accidents faced further challenges when their claims cases reach court as the Third Party Ordinance, set up in 1948 to make provisions for compulsory insurance against third party risks arising out of motor vehicles, had exclusions and limitations.
“The limitations vary from delayed compensation due to court proceedings; or no compensations due to error of driver; or wrongful use of vehicle. While the insurance companies are protected by law, the concern that the Consumer Council has is, who pays for the undue stress and loss of lives the innocent third parties and their families suffer?”
She said authorities needed to re-look the legislation, to update it, in particular, what is called the Exclusion Clause.
“Right now, we need to look at the Exclusions Clause, the conditions upon which the liabilities, the claims cannot be made, we need to look at that. The issue here is if it’s compulsory third party, we want to make sure that the third party – the victims – of any motor vehicle accident is well compensated. But if you have all these exclusion clauses, then the victim becomes victims of circumstances,” Kumar told Fiji Live.
“And they are so aggrieved and they go to the insurance company and they cannot make their claims as much as they want and they go to the court knocking on the door, they have to pay the lawyers, and at the end of the day, who is doing all the running around? It’s the victims.
But why should we have a system where a victim becomes a victim of circumstances. So the whole idea here is to look at the insurance policies pertaining to third party and see how we can create a win-win situation for insurance companies, the government and for the victims.”
She said the Council was of the view that redress for accident victims should be simple and not divided between different agencies.
“Victims should get fair claims that they deserve by approaching an institution that is less adversarial and efficient to save costs, time and lessen the impact of the trauma they are enduring. Victims or loved ones need not go through the added ordeal of courts and paying expensive lawyers on top of their misfortunes. Fiji should have an Accident Compensation Commission to deal with all accidents including motor vehicle accidents, workplace accidents and general accidents,” Kumar said.
