POLOKWANE – The RAF is responsible for providing appropriate cover to all road users, including foreigners, within the borders of South Africa, rehabilitating and compensating persons injured as a result of motor vehicles in a timely and caring manner and actively promoting the safe use of all South African roads. It provides two types of cover namely personal insurance cover to accident victims or their families and indemnity cover to wrongdoers.
The social insurance cover, however, does not extend to drivers of motor vehicles that are found to be negligent.
The socio-economic role of the RAF is to reintegrate victims of road accidents into society, from a health and economic perspective, and protect wrongdoers and their families from financial ruin. This is done by the RAF paying the medical and related services cost required to restore accident victims to health, compensating the victims or their families for income or support lost as a result of the accident and indemnifying the wrongdoer from liability. In addition, the RAF pays general damages to accident victims which represent compensation for pain and suffering, loss of amenities of life, disability and disfigurement as well as funeral costs to families in circumstances where the victim of the accident sustains fatal injuries.
The first step in claiming from the RAF is to gather all the necessary documents. Without all the relevant documents your claim’s probability of success will decrease. The documents required to launch a claim with the RAF are: the police report and or case number of the accident, all your relevant personal details as well as those of any other person involved in the accident, all medical documents supporting the claim of injuries incurred, any motivating testimony from medical and or legal experts as well as witness testimony, any relevant information pertaining to the accident such as damages to vehicle(s) and or surrounding structures and most importantly, the official RAF forms required.
Once you have completed all the necessary forms and accompanying documents, you must submit the documents in hard-copy – faxed documents still require the originals to be furnished and e-mailed documents are not accepted.
Ensure all the documents are filled in correctly and make copies of all the paperwork as having copies of the documents will hasten the process in the event of an administration error. Once the claim is processed, the legal proceedings begin and the claimant(s) evidence is considered by the RAF. The claim is lodged on a prescribed statutory claim form which is accompanied by an affidavit setting out the following: Full particulars of the accident, statements of witnesses, police reports, hospital and medical records, vouchers and documents in support of amounts claimed.
The drivers of the vehicles involved in the collision must furnish details of the accident to the RAF on a statutory accident report form together with information of witnesses which the RAF may request.
Once a claim is submitted, the RAF registers it on its claim system and commences with investigations.
The RAF determines whether the claim is valid (i.e. was there a road accident, does it comply with statutory provisions, was it submitted in time, etc.) and what the merits of the case are (i.e. the degree of fault, blame or negligence to be ascribed to the drivers of the vehicles and the claimant respectively). The quantum is also determined (i.e. the amount of the damages or losses suffered).
Hospital based case managers or nurses are appointed to assess, facilitate and advocate for the comprehensive needs of a motor vehicle accident victim immediately after being involved in a motor vehicle accident at various hospitals nationwide. Field based case managers are nurses and occupational therapists appointed to assess, facilitate and advocate for the comprehensive ongoing medical needs of the motor vehicle accident victim at their home after being discharged from the medical facility.
Motor vehicle accident victims may also use an attorney to facilitate claims from RAF.
