Court orders Road Accident Fund to compensate man after flawed investigation
The Road Accident Fund has been ordered to pay a man after it denied that he was in a car accident and claimed that he caused it because he was drunk.
Image: Supplied
The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, has ordered the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to pay general damages to a man after it denied that a car accident occurred and ruled that the man was not liable for compensation.
The plaintiff, Louis Bekker, told the court that he was involved in a car accident on April 15, 2017, while travelling with his family from Buffelspoort at Marumba to Mooinooi, North West Province.
He stated that he was intoxicated, and as a result, his wife was the driver of the Isuzu bakkie, which belonged to his friend, Gerard Fourie, known as Fellies.
He said they agreed with Fellies that he would take over the hire purchase instalment of the bakkie. The insurance policy was registered in his friend's name.
“My wife Maria Bekker was driving at a low speed when the oncoming motor vehicle appeared, driven with bright lights on at high speed. I noticed my wife switching on bright lights, but the car kept moving to our side.”
Bekker said his wife swerved the car to the left to avoid a collision, adding that at this stage, he heard a bang as there was a collision in the mirror on the driver's side caused by oncoming traffic. He said his wife moved off the road to the gravel, and the left wheels were off the tar road.
“The front wheel of the bakkie broke after contact with an oncoming car, and the bakkie collided with trees and subsequently overturned,” he stated.
He testified that he lost consciousness and regained it in the hospital when his son was pushing him in a wheelchair, and after that, he lost consciousness until the next day.
Additionally, Bekker said his wife did the best she could under those circumstances and stated that if she had not avoided the accident, they would have died.
When Maria testified in court, she said the police told her that there was no need for an accident report as she was not the owner of the bakkie.
She stated that it was later done when Fellies needed it for his insurance claim.
She said she did not know the car registration number as it did not belong to them. Additionally, Maria said that when she reported the accident, she used the licence disc number, and the police statement referred to her as the driver.
Under cross-examination, she said she did not notice that the car registration and licence disk numbers did not correspond. In her defence, she said her husband's attorney completed the affidavit and she signed it without reading it.
In its defence, the RAF maintained that Bekker was the driver of the bakkie and was the sole cause of the accident.
An RAF investigating officer, Sherwin Kemoetie, said they relied on the affidavit of the claimant's accident report and a copy of the police's accident register.
He said they also relied on interviewing the owner of the vehicle, but since there was a problem with the registration number, they could not trace the driver.
“I’m not the one who compiled the report or gathered information on the matter,” Kemoetie said.
Judge Nelisa Mali said it was apparent that the RAF did not carry out a thorough investigation.
Judge Mali found the evidence of Bekker and his witnesses credible.
“From the evidence of the plaintiff, he was not the driver of the vehicle when the accident occurred,” said Judge Mali.
Furthermore, she said Bekker proved that he was indeed involved in a car accident.
nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za