Has yourThird Party cover helped someone?

A traffic officer at the scene of an accident involving a car and a boda boda rider. Many motorists don’t know that in such situations, the accident victims (parties) are covered by Third Party Insurance. FILE PHOTO 

By Emmy Omongin

In Summary

Third Party Insurance cover is a must-have for every motorist. However, because many motorists acquire it for purposes of fulfilling traffic law requirements, they miss out on its intended purpose. Today, a good number of motorists can confess to only having not benifitted from it (when they should) to not actually knowing what it is all about.

 

I t is mandatory to have insurance whenever one buys a vehicle. In fact, in Uganda, it is a law for every vehicle to have a third party insurance sticker and according to the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third Party) Act, 1989, it is mandatory for every owner of a vehicle plying public roads to take an insurance policy to cover the amount, which the owner becomes legally liable to pay as damages to third parties as a result of accidental death, bodily injury or damage to property.

As much as this law is well followed, owners of these vehicles do not really take time to understand Third Party Insurance. They don’t bother to find out its use and why it is vital for them to have their vehicle insured. Most of them just buy it to follow the traffic law.

What does it do?

It is called Third Party because it covers people outside the insurance contract. So in case of an accident, they are the ones that benefit from it.

In simple terms, if you were to run into another car and cause damage to that car and injure the occupants of that car, a third party policy will only cater for the expenses of repairing the other vehicle, and will pay for any medical claims or injuries suffered by the occupants of that car and any passengers in your car other than you.

However, this policy does not cover the costs of repairing your own vehicle.

Why you need it

In case of an accident, it will cover bodily injury suffered by passengers who are not related to the driver. According to Pamela Abonyo, the Senior Manager Corporate Communications, National Insurance Corporation (NIC), third party is meant to protect the people a driver harms.

“If one has third party insurance by NIC and they are involved in an accident, NIC is supposed to cover for medical expenses,” Abonyo explains. She also adds that the money paid for third party is not free money for the insurer; it is to protect a driver from incurring costs in the future since life is full of uncertainties.

“Anything can happen anytime and if you (the driver) do not have money at that time, you will not have to worry since you have a third party,” Abonyo explains.

Annet Itungo, a motorist, does not realise the use of this policy because she has never benefited from it.

“I just buy that insurance sticker to avoid being arrested by the traffic police. I hear it also caters for victims’ medication in case I have caused an accident. I don’t know how true that is because I have never caused one,” Itungo explains.

How to acquire it

According to Regina Abotho, a Senior Underwriter at NIC, after purchasing a vehicle, one is supposed to produce the photocopy of their log book and payment for basic premium.

“This system is annual and drivers are bound to renew it as soon as it expires,” she adds. Abotho complains that most motorists do not take the time to understand how this type of insurance works