Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA)
Tira Director of Law Paul Ngwembe, said during a roundtable meeting coordinated by Legal Assistance to Victims of Accidents (LAVA) in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday that the plans are at an advanced stage to see that such victims receive help.
The fund is to be financed by the government in collaboration with insurance firms. “We have noticed that there is a good number of road accident victims who may not identify the vehicles that hit them. The suspects manage to escape shortly after causing the accidents … because of this the victims fail to get assistance be it medical or any other,” he said.
In a related development, Ngwembe said a special window to be called the Public Advocate (Ombudsman) is to be opened on July 1, this year.
The window would be responsible for resolving disputes that arise between insurance firms, clients and the accident victims.
”The new system will relieve accident victims and insurance firms’ clients of the trouble that they face when battling it out through the court procedures before the firms pay out …it aims to shorten the time the victim takes to get compensation. But if such victims are not satisfied with the Ombudsman’s decision, they can still pursue the case in an Appeals court,” he said.
This will enable accident victims to get their claims processed within 60 days from the launching date.
For his part, the Association of Tanzania Insurers (ATI) representative, Samuel Mchopa, said the existing disputes between insurance firms and their clients are largely contributed by the insurance clients’ lack of knowledge in filing motor vehicle claim forms after the accidents.
Vehicle owners often misspell their names, physical addresses and even the number of accident victims, things which bring legal confusion during the compensation process.
“Bad enough, the forms are filed by police officers instead of the victims themselves which is not right. That is why the errors occur… many accident victims face hurdles before getting compensation because some of the vehicles involved have fake insurance stickers and even those with genuine ones do not cooperate with the victims to report the incidents to their insurance firms,’’ he observed.
For her part, Temeke Resident Magistrate Luzango Khamsini, said there is a need for more awareness about insurance matters, because even most of the law practitioners in the country are also ignorant of the same.
“Sometimes we are in dilemma when it comes to matters related to insurance especially when the accident victims come to us to demand for their rights …. We don’t know where to direct them to. At times they come to us after the judgment has already been made,” she said.
For her part, LAVA Chairperson Joyce Mwangota, said insurance firms’ clients are the ones responsible to compensate the victims of accidents through their insurance firms.
“We have noticed that most of the clients of the insurance firms’ clients do not bother to understand well the policies of a particular firm before registering …. They come to understand the firms when in they are in trouble, but that is when it is already too late,” she said.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
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