LETTER: Road accident scheme bill rewards lawlessness
SA's transport department and the Road Accident Fund are ramming the defective Road Accident Benefit Scheme through parliament’s portfolio committee on transport
Imagine a country with one of the world’s highest road accident fatality rates, with an average of more than 14,000 deaths annually. Imagine that its government decides to introduce a road accident compensation system that has been shown not to work globally. SA’s transport department and the Road Accident Fund (RAF) are ramming the Road Accident Benefit Scheme through parliament’s portfolio committee on transport. Taxpayers will continue to fork out money from the fuel levy to prop up the RAF, and once the scheme becomes law it will benefit road victims substantially less than they get now. If the scheme becomes law, all persons younger than 18 making a claim will cease to receive benefits once they reach 18 — even if they need the benefit for life. It will ensure that anyone older than 65 won’t receive any benefits, even if they need this assistance for the rest of their lives. The bill proposes that anyone claiming from the scheme would not be required to prove that a crash was c...
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