Johannesburg - It’s an all-too familiar situation. Another driver causes damage to your car and you have to go through seemingly endless red tape to claim from the offending party’s insurer to get your car back into tip-top shape. Besides the repairs, which seem to take forever, the paperwork involved in your claim as a third party can be frustrating.
To ensure that insurance companies get all the relevant information as quickly as possible and speed up the claims process, Santam has launched a new app, free of charge and for everybody, not only Santam clients. The Accident and Incident Reporter, a feature on the Santam App with Be Safe , guides you through a simple, step-by-step process to report, document and submit an accident or incident report directly to any insurer.
Santam head of claims assessment services Fanus Coetzee explained: “When you’re involved in an accident, you may be too flustered to remember all the information that will be needed by an insurer. The Santam App with Be Safe will ensure a structured process, so you don’t leave out crucial details which may be difficult to obtain later.”
Coetzee said Santam received about 4500 third-party liability claims a month and paid out a total of R336 million for such claims in 2014.
POINT OF VIEW
“It’s important to remember that insurers often have two conflicting views of an accident or incident – yours and that of the other driver.
“It may be found that even though you didn’t cause the event, you may have contributed to it by not taking appropriate evasive action.
“In all these cases, our job of deciding how to apportion damage will be much easier if you can provide us (or any other insurer) with as much relevant evidence as possible.”
The Accident and Incident Reporter on the Santam App with Be Safe will enable you to scan the barcode of your vehicle licence disc (and those of other vehicles involved), capture the details of all parties concerned, record audio statements from witnesses, describe the accident, and take and store photos.
All this information can be sent to the insurer within a matter of minutes. In addition, the app will assist you in finding the nearest police station where you can submit an accident report.
Star Motoring