Cedric Stephens | NRSC must advocate for motor insurance law reform

I spent many hours during the last few months conducting research, talking with motorists, insurance company employees, and writing about road accidents.

Attending a National Road Safety Council meeting was also part of the fact finding. The committee’s mission is to reduce the number of crashes on the nation’s roads and promote road safety.

Prime Minister and NRSC Chairman Dr Andrew Holness, in his November statement marking World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims 2024, said traffic accidents were the 11th leading cause of death in Jamaica. Last year, for example, over 350 people lost their lives and more than 10,000 were injured in crashes. Five months earlier, transport minister Darryl Vaz, described the situation as a “national emergency (and that) things were getting from bad to worse”.

Today’s article will look at the insurance implications of two fatal accidents that occurred in Bluefields, Westmoreland and along the Braco main road in Trelawny. Seven persons lost their lives in these collisions that were avoidable. The analysis will be conducted in the context of those mishaps and the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third-Party Risks) Act – or MVITPRA for short.

When the motor insurance law was passed over 80 years ago, donkey carts were among the modes of transport for the movement of people and goods. There were no traffic lights, and the island was governed by the British.

Bluefields crash

Five passengers plus the driver were travelling in a Toyota Noah which was operated as a taxi on November 11. The average kerb weight (that is, the unladen weight without passengers) of a 2016 Toyota Noah Si 4WD, is approximately 1,680 kilogrammes or 3,704 pounds. The passengers were a mother and her son, another mother and her teenage daughter, and a third woman.

According to The Gleaner, the police reported that at about 3.30 p.m. the taxi was travelling towards Whitehouse when the vehicle in front of it slowed down. The road was said to be wet, and the taxi was allegedly speeding. The taxi driver swerved to the right to avoid a collision but instead crashed into a ‘box truck’ travelling in the opposite direction. No other details about the truck were provided.

For the purposes of this article, it will be assumed that it was an Isuzu NPR truck with a kerb weight ranging between 5,400 to 6,000 pounds, and that it was carrying goods. The Noah careened off the roadway after the impact and crashed into a tree killing three passengers. The other two died in hospital. The driver, who was the only survivor, fled the scene.

Braco crash

A Toyota Isis was travelling from Discovery Bay towards Duncans on November 9. As the driver approached the Melia Braco Village, he overtook a line of traffic and collided with a Kia Sorento that was driving in the opposite direction. The impact pushed the Toyota into the path of a Kia Sportage that was driving from Montego Bay. Two women in the Isis were killed. Other persons suffered injuries.

Motor insurance law

Section 4(1) of MVITPRA makes the case for compulsory motor vehicle insurance. It says: it shall not be lawful for any person to use, or to cause or permit any other person to use a motor vehicle on a road, unless there is in force in relation to the user of the vehicle by that person or that other person, as the case may be, such a policy of insurance … in respect of third-party risks as complies with the requirements of this Act.

Section 5, subsections (1) to (3), set out the minimum limits for the insurance as follows:

Personal injury:–

• $1,000,000 per person.

• $3,000,000 all claims arising from one accident.

Property damage:–

• $500,000 any one person.

• $1,000,000 any one accident.

This law is one of many that were inherited from our former enslavers and, subsequently, colonial masters. It makes insurance compulsory for vehicles operating on public roads. That history, and some of the present provisions of the equivalent United Kingdom law, should be contrasted when reading the current Jamaican law.

For example, the minimum coverage for personal injuries and property damage under the former are unlimited and £1.2 million ($241.9 million) per accident, respectively. Local motor policies offered unlimited limits for personal injuries in the past. What triggered the change remains unknown.

In earlier columns I showed that lawmakers in many of our regional neighbours with a similar history and legal tradition, updated the minimum personal injury and property damage limits in their compulsory motor vehicle insurance laws. Jamaican legislators have imposed obligations on non-life insurers that invalidate the impact of the average clause in property insurance in specific situations. This is because the average clause is widely perceived to be unfair.

At the same time, unreasonable limits on the value of the lives of persons who are killed or injured in road accidents exist and victims and their families are left without adequate compensation or effective legal remedy, as is likely to happen with the November crashes.

Many motorists are ignorant of the law’s history and its shortcomings. The insurance regulator’s attempts to impose requirements on insurers and intermediaries to provide training to staff and give customers and prospective customers “current, relevant, accurate information including sound explanations of the terms and conditions of insurance contracts” have been unsuccessful. The personal injury and property damage limits in most motor policies are too low and inappropriate for Jamaica in the 21st century.

The compensation framework created by MVITPRA should be overhauled. The NRSC should take the lead by amending its mission to include this activity instead of focusing solely on the numbers of persons killed and injured. The grieving scores of relatives, dependants, and friends of the seven persons killed in the Bluefields and Braco tragedies and other crashes demand this. Sending drivers to prison for violations of regulations under the Road Traffic Act is not enough.

Cedric E. Stephens provides independent information and advice about the management of risks and insurance. For free information or counsel, write to: aegis@flowja.com or business@gleanerjm.com