Martin Endjala
For the past three years, with the exception of medical claims, the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVA) spent on average N$200 million per year on service providers such as doctors, hospitals and medical treatment of victims of road crashes.
This was revealed by the Fund’s Chief Executive Office, Rosalia Martins-Hausiku, during a media engagement in Windhoek last week.
She said that the fund also pays out personal claims such as funerals, injury grants, loss of support grants and loss of income.
She indicated that in 2021 the fund was taxed with 2 741 claims valued at N$71 million. In 2022 the fund processed 2 582 claims valued at N$62 million, while it processed 1 552 claims valued at N$25 million from January to August this year.
Martins-Hausiku said that there is no correlation between what is happening on the road and what enters their systems because people do not claim immediately.
“It’s not like you are in an accident and then the claim is immediately submitted. People have up to one year to claim, and they bring their claims at different intervals. So, if we show here that the amount paid is N$25 million it does not mean that it is all for the year, you will see that for the next three months, people will still submit claims,” she explained.
She added that the fund compensates persons who were severely injured in accidents with up to N$100 000, depending on the severity of the injuries sustained. Currently, the highest payout the fund has made is around N$40 000 – N$50 000 and every injured person qualifies for up to N$1.5 million for medical expenses.
Martins-Hausiku noted that the N$1.5 million includes all expenses such as ambulance fees, referrals, medical checks and treatment until the allocated amount is depleted.
“However, a person that causes a motor vehicle accident is unfortunately not eligible for compensation for their injuries even though both parties involved are attended to at the accident scene and taken to the hospital at the cost of the Fund. The fund’s involvement with a person who caused an accident ends when declared stable by the doctor at the hospital,” she said.
Martins-Hausiku expressed concern about a new trend where members of the public call the fund to transfer their hospitalized relatives from one facility to another.
She said that it is not the mandate of the fund to do patient transfers.
She said that the Fund no longer decides to which hospital a patient must be after such a person was involved in an accident.
The decision now lies with the emergency response paramedics based on the assessment of the severity of the injuries.
With regard to fatalities, injuries and crashes, the MVA Fund recorded 1 943 crashes from January to August this year, compared to 3 070 recorded last year.
“At this stage, it looks like we are going to end the year with lower numbers because we have now passed the busy months. Numbers may increase again during the festive season so we’re going to have to intensify our road safety campaigns to minimize casualties on the roads,” she said.
