In a period of just five days over Easter last year 242 people died in a total of 201 fatal crashes. This year Easter falls on April 18-21, and worryingly this is during the second term for government schools – generally people tag on a day or two either side of the weekend which helps to stagger the traffic f low. Not so this year. At Eikos, we want to remind you that in the event of an accident, your insurer will only consider a claim if your vehicle is completely roadworthy, and of course it’s also a good way to ensure your safety on the road. This is true for both private road users and commercial transport operators. Contrary to popular belief, the average insurer is not looking for ways to avoid settling claims, but if a customer is reckless enough to drive an unroadworthy vehicle, an insurance company is well within its right to repudiate. Furthermore you have a common law duty to disclose anything that is considered to be material to the risk you have insured. If you don’t, your insurer also has grounds to reject your claim. If you are in any doubt as to what is material and what isn’t, rather disclose. From experience, it’s clear that many insured clients don’t consider their loss/accident history to be material. Not true; this is critical information to any insurer. In the event that you claim, and previous accidents and losses have not been disclosed, your insurer will look at the law and make equity considerations before paying you ie, what is fair in the circumstances and whether the insurer has been prejudiced by your non-disclosure. The question to ask yourself is whether you, as an insurer, would have accepted the risk on the terms and conditions provided and at the price charged had you known all of the material facts at the time. Most of you reading this will be correctly insured, drive a safe vehicle, have a thorough knowledge of the rules of the road, and have been completely transparent with your insurance partners, but you need to be extremely vigilant of those with whom you share the roads. Officials estimate that as many as 250 000 fake roadworthy certificates have been issued in the last 18 months. Combine this worrying statistic with the fact that many of our road users do not have a valid driver’s licence, and that according to the AA 65% of vehicles have no insurance cover at all, and responsible drivers realise how potentially dangerous our roads can be...
