The Sunday Gleaner shared a heart-breaking account final week of Odean Brown’s battle to avoid wasting certainly one of her legs that was injured in a motorized vehicle accident. The mishap occurred in Trelawny in 1999.
The article, ‘A Painful Christmas: Lady’s Battle to Save Leg Headed for a Disappointing Finish’ written by Senior Workers Reporter Corey Robinson, was very unhappy. It strengthened an opinion that I’ve expressed many occasions. The motorized vehicle insurance coverage compensation system, like many issues on this nation, isn’t working correctly. Persons are struggling in consequence.
The system must be fastened. Are the oldsters within the ministries of justice, mining and transport, and/or Workplace of the Prime Minister unaware of the issue? Why isn’t one thing being accomplished to alleviate the hardships which might be being confronted by many different Odean Browns whose lives are being dislocated by motorized vehicle accidents?
Lowering the variety of individuals who’re killed or maimed is one a part of the answer. Discovering an efficient answer to fixing a dysfunctional system is one other. Discovering a repair is definitely not as troublesome as launching the James Webb Area Telescope and, to cite The New York Instances, “recognizing the primary stars and galaxies rising from the primordial fog when the universe was solely 100 million years or so previous”.
DEEMED AT FAULT
Ms Brown is a buyer care consultant employed by the Registrar Normal’s Division. She was travelling in a van as a passenger making deliveries on behalf of her employer. The van driver collided head-on with one other car whereas within the act of overtaking. The entrance of the van crumpled, injuring her leg. The Sunday Gleaner reported Ms Brown as saying that “nothing financially beneficial got here of the insurance coverage claims within the court docket, partly as a result of the motive force of the car through which she was travelling was deemed at fault (and that) the corporate with whom she labored has since closed”. Wasn’t the Motor Autos Insurance coverage (Third-Occasion Dangers) Act, MVITPRA, drafted for conditions like these encountered by Ms Brown?
On Christmas Day this 12 months, The Jamaica Observer revealed a report about mass casualties in a crash that occurred on Christmas Eve in Hanover. Eighteen individuals who have been travelling in a minibus have been mentioned to have suffered accidents, together with “damaged bones, displaced hips, abrasions, head accidents, and spinal injury”. It isn’t inconceivable, given the truth that the compensation system stays unfixed, that a number of the injured individuals – maybe all of them – will find yourself in the identical scenario as Ms Brown, 22 years from now.
Part 5(1) of MVITPRA says to adjust to the necessities of the legislation, “the coverage of insurance coverage should be a coverage which: (a) is issued by an individual who’s an insurer; and (b) topic to the provisions of this part, insures such particular person, individuals or courses of individuals, as could also be specified within the coverage, towards any legal responsibility incurred by him or them in respect of (i) the dying of, or bodily damage to, any particular person; and (ii) any property injury, brought on by or arising out of using the motorized vehicle on the highway”.
There may be nothing within the legislation that prevented Ms Brown from getting compensation below the act. Sections 8(1) and (2) reinforce the final intent of the legislation, that’s, to cowl any legal responsibility that causes dying or bodily damage. The truth that she acquired no monetary compensation for her accidents because the legislation meant suggests systemic dysfunction.
In ‘The Financial Value of Motor Crashes’, which was revealed on December 19, I confirmed that the present statutory limits in MVITPRA wanted to be elevated. They’re very low when in comparison with the bounds discovered within the legal guidelines of our neighbours. Additional, they don’t symbolize present-day prices and are at variance with lots of the autos which might be utilized in floor transportation. The Christmas Eve crash in Hanover, sadly, validates this argument.
Would Odean Brown, her members of the family, the 18 individuals who have been injured within the Hanover crash, members of their households and the a whole lot – maybe 1000’s – of individuals who’re affected straight and not directly by the dysfunctional motorized vehicle insurance coverage compensation system place a higher emphasis on ditching the Queen than getting an efficient and environment friendly Twenty first-century system after they have the misfortune to be concerned in crashes which might be changing into extra frequent?
Our leaders, for some purpose, don’t think about discovering an answer to the latter a precedence. I hope {that a} miracle will go to Ms Brown and others like her in 2022.
Cedric E. Stephens gives unbiased data and recommendation in regards to the administration of dangers and insurance coverage. Free of charge data or counsel, write to: [email protected] or [email protected]
