The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government was yesterday urged to crack down on the 20-25 per cent of Bahamian motorists who are uninsured, given the increasing frequency of traffic accidents where victims have no compensation recourse.

Tom Duff, Insurance Company of the Bahamas (ICB) general manager, said the entire industry wanted to see the Government take “a stronger approach” to the issue, given the harm it was inflicting on Bahamian victims and their families.

He told Tribune Business that it was a “totally unsatisfactory” situation for between ‘one in five’ and ‘one in four motorists’ to either lack entirely, or not have adequate, insurance coverage.

And many businesses were failing to adhere to their policy’s conditions in terms of who was allowed to drive company vehicles.

The latter situation was highlighted by yesterday’s Privy Council judgment, which found that a driver “tragically blinded” in a 2004 accident with a jitney cannot enforce a $521,943 damages judgment against ICB.

This was because the jitney’s driver, Stevan Edgecombe, was not among the 11 Convenient City Transit Services employees named on the ICB policy as persons ‘authorised’ to drive the vehicle.

This ‘restricted driver’ clause, which insurers use to limit their payout liability exposure only to accidents involving ‘authorised’ drivers named on the policy, barred Mr Antonio’s claim.

Significantly, Lord Mance, the UK law lord who wrote the judgment, appeared to call for action by the Bahamian Government and Parliament to address situations such as Mr Antonio’s.

He also suggested that the Bahamas follow the lead established by the UK and European Union (EU), and create a fund - financed by the insurance industry - that could compensate persons injured in accidents caused by uninsured drivers or persons not authorised to drive the offending vehicle.

Lord Mance’s idea was backed by Mr Duff, who also urged the Government to “automate” the entire Road Traffic Department, linking everything from driver’s licences to inspections and tying into the police.

This, he suggested, could identify uninsured motorists, while also helping to implement a ‘penalty points’ system that would ultimately result in persistent traffic offenders being banned from driving via the suspension of their licence.

“One of the things the industry would like to see is the Government taking a firmer view on uninsured motorists,” Mr Duff told Tribune Business.

“Anything that can be done to reduce incidents where people get injured, and there is no recourse for compensation, has to be tackled. We’d like to see the Government take a stronger approach to this.”

Mr Duff described estimates that 20-25 per cent of Bahamian motorists are uninsured as “in the ball park”, and “the kind of figures we’re working with”.

He added that even motorists with comprehensive insurance could be struck by an uninsured driver, and left “with no one to claim against or no funds to claim against”.

Victims of accidents involving uninsured and ‘unauthorised’ drivers are currently left to seek compensation through the courts, where cases are often backed up for years due to the ongoing backlog.

Mr Duff said that, in many cases, the culprits lacked the necessary funds to compensate their victims - something that appears to have occurred in Mr Antonio’s case with Convenient City Transit Services and its driver, Stevan Edgecombe.

The Privy Council judgment said not a cent of his $521,943 damages claim has yet been paid, and it is likely the jitney company’s inability to pay that forced Mr Antonio to turn to ICB.

“It’s unacceptable to have 20-25 per cent uninsured motorists out there,” Mr Duff told Tribune Business. “Hopefully the Government can look at all this, amid their other priorities, and try and improve the situation.

“One way around this is to start automating the process from the driver’s licences to the police, so that it is much easier for the police to identify uninsured motorists.

“In this day of high-tech, we should be headed towards that.”

Lord Mance, meanwhile, backed Court of Appeal president, Anita Allen’s, call for intervention by the Government and Parliament on the issue.

“It is for the legislature in each country where the problem continues to exist to consider whether and how to address it,”he added.

“Any complete solution, covering in particular situations where no relevant insurance cover exists at all, requires more wide-ranging arrangements, such as the long-established extra-statutory Motor Insurers’ Bureau in the United Kingdom and the other national insurers’ bureau now required throughout the European Union under Directive 2009/103/EC of 16 September, 2009.”

The Motor Insurers’ Bureau is a fund, financed by the UK insurance industry, to compensate victims such as Mr Antonio.

The Bahamas has nothing of the kind, and Mr Duff agreed with Lord Mance that the Government may have to look at a similar situation to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau.

“It’s obviously a problem for the country, and is something the Government will have to look at from a legislative, social point of view,” he added.