Insurers, client lock horns over accident claim
King Price explains why it rejected it
When Thabiso Tshabalala fled the accident scene in a bid to escape from hijackers, little did he know that his insurance company would reject his claim.
While fleeing, he crashed his car into the pole of a church tent in the area. He, however, did not stop because the hijackers were still hot in pursuit.
“By God’s grace, I managed to escape. However, my car was badly damaged,” he said, adding that he later called the insurance company to report his ordeal.
But the insurance company rejected his claim citing dishonesty as a reason, and that he had been to a tavern, implying that he was drunk at the time of the crash.
The company, King Price, also rejected his claim because he had left the accident scene unlawfully, he said.
“I was a victim of an attempted hijacking and I managed to drive away and save my life,” Tshabalala said.
King Price offered to pay all the premiums he had paid since December last year.
Andre Kirsten of King Price denied the claim was rejected because Tshabalala fled the scene, insisting that their client was dishonest.
Kirsten said Tshabalala had an accident on October 14, but only registered his claim five days later. “The claim was rejected due to his failure to provide true and complete information to King Price about the incident, and due to his leaving the scene unlawfully.”
He added that Tshabalala gave three different versions of the event, noting that he had reported that he was at home on the day of the incident until he received a call from his spouse requesting to be picked up from work.
“This changed once more. The last version changed to Tshabalala being at a tavern for the most [part] of the evening before the incident occurred,” he said.
Kirsten said during the validation of the claim, they managed to trace witnesses who confirmed the accident did not occur at the said time.
“This was corroborated by the time stamp of his call to emergency services to arrange a tow truck.”
He said the allegations that shots were fired by the alleged hijackers were also unfounded. He said the witnesses, who stay close to the alleged scene of the crime, told King Price they heard the noise of the collision, but no shots had been fired.
“In fact, there is no evidence to indicate that Mr Tshabalala was the victim of a hijacking attempt.”
Kirsten said the evidence indicates that he provided a false version of events, noting that their policy wording requires “our insured to always provide true and complete information”.
The policy reads: “Always provide us with true and complete information. This also applied when anyone else acts on your behalf.
“We wish to stress that should any of our clients find themselves in a situation where they are faced with a life-threatening situation, it is our hope that they first concern themselves with their own safety,” he said.
Though Tshabalala requested Kirsten to supply Consumer Line with the copy of his recordings with the alleged contradictions, he had not done so at the time of going to print.