“I was in a motor vehicle accident recently and intend to institute action against the Road Accident Fund. What type of compensation can one claim from the Road Accident Fund?”

03 May 2022 ,  Dries Knoetze 1029

Before dealing with the question as to what damages may be claimed from the RAF, one must first establish when the Road Accident Fund (RAF) is liable to pay out damages.

According to Section 17 (1)(a) of the Road Accident Fund Act, (the Act), certain requirements are to be met before the RAF will accept or will be regarded to be liable, which are the following:

  1. The claimant (being any person whomsoever or a third party must have suffered damages or loss in the form of bodily injury to him or herself or by virtue of the death of another person;
  2. There must have been negligent driving of a motor vehicle or another unlawful act resulting in;
  3. Damage or loss to the third party; and
  4. The damage or loss must have been caused by or arose from the negligent driving of a motor vehicle.

It is noteworthy that in terms of Section 17(1)(a) as indicated above, the RAF is not liable for any damage to your vehicle and as such no claim can be lodged against the RAF to repair or replace your damaged vehicle.

The following claims can be submitted to the RAF:

  • (A)person that suffered bodily injuries or death may claim damages for:
    1. Past and future income and earning capacity;
    2. Past and future traveling expenses to get medical treatment;
    3. Medical and hospital costs;
    4. The cost of employing an assistant and/or a nurse as a result of the injury and;
    5. General damages (pain, suffering, inconvenience, disfigurement and loss of amenities of life.

     

  • (B)damages that can be claimed as a result of death are:
    1. Loss of earnings and support; and
    2. Funeral costs.


    It should be noted that normally claims for (A)2 – (A)4 above will not be paid in monetary value to the claimant by the RAF but, the RAF will rather provide the claimant with a Section 17(5) undertaking in terms of which the RAF undertakes to settle such expenses directly with the supplier.

    In order to qualify for compensation under (A)5 being general damages the injury sustained by the claimant must be qualified as a serious injury, which qualification is made using two measures, being the whole-body impairment test and the narrative test. Should your injuries fail to quality as serious, you will not be able to claim compensation for your general damages.

    Some of these minor injuries include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Whiplash or soft tissue injury to neck or back
  • Strain, tear, crush or damage to any muscle or soft tissue;
  • Mild sprain, strain, tear or damage to any ligament of any joint unless there is continuing instability of the joint;
  • Lacerations, cuts, tear or damage to skin or soft tissue which do not result in permanent serious disfigurement;
  • Complete or partial amputation of the little finger of either hand or both;
  • Fracture of any finger;
  • Complete or partial amputation of any one toe unless there is partial or complete amputation of big toe;
  • Fracture of any toe;
  • Damage or loss of a tooth or any number of teeth;
  • Superficial burns and superficial injuries to one or both eyes;
  • Fracture of nasal bone or damage to nasal cartilage;
  • Bruising or bleeding into soft tissues;
  • Mild or moderate form of depression, anxiety, chronic headaches or posttraumatic stress disorder.

Compensation in RAF matter will always be determined on a case to case basis using inter alia, the services of actuaries for calculations of loss of earnings and support claims and it is thus advisable that before you intend to lodge a claim with the RAF that you approach a RAF specialist attorney to assist you with not only the lodgement of your claim but also the calculation of your claim.

Interesting to note that according to the RAF's annual report for 2020, the average value paid out per claim was R138,010R826,007 was the average pay-out for loss of earnings. R482,291 was the average pay-out for general damages.

Reference List:

  • LexisNexis – RAF Practitioner’s Guide
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