DAMMAM — A study has revealed that 43.5 percent of road accidents in the Kingdom are inaccurately reported.
Researcher Mohammad Munai said he conducted a study on a sample of 384 individuals to measure the effectiveness of insurance companies. “Insurance companies are losing profits 95 percent of the time due to incorrect reporting of road accidents. The study concluded the insurance companies need to have a stronger relationship with the traffic departments,” Al-Watan newspaper quoted Munai as saying.
He added there is a lack of awareness about the importance of insurance because insurance companies are not marketing themselves efficiently and insurance laws are not implemented effectively.
“The rate of deaths in traffic accidents in a day is 17 while the rate of injuries in a year reached 67,000. The financial losses from accidents reached a whopping SR13 billion annually. Only 45 percent of the vehicles involved in road accidents were insured,” said Munai.
He said there is no specialized court in the Kingdom to deal with road accident cases.
“There are many indefinite statements and discrepancies in the traffic department’s report and people involved in accidents often object to some of the statements and charges. Time is wasted by the traffic department in writing accident reports,” said Munai.
He also said people involved in accidents may give conflicting statements.
“The reports given by car workshops may be inaccurate and randomly assessed. This may result in people involved in accidents delaying payments,” said Munai.
