Traffic victims fail to seek their rights

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

One out of every two people injured in traffic accidents fail to pursue their legal rights and apply to insurance companies because they are unaware of their rights.

Traffic accident victims in Turkey are more often than not unaware of what their rights are and therefore fail to purse legal action with insurance companies.

In the first half of the year streets in Turkey saw 147,000 traffic accidents with 95,000 walking away from accidents with injuries. However, one out of every two injured people did not pursue their legal rights and apply to insurance companies, according to Assurance Account Manager Kadir Küçük said.
Assurance Account kicks into action in cases where the victims do not have traffic insurance and seeks redress for victims who have been wounded in traffic accidents, Küçük said. In 2011, there were 11,636 applications to the Assurance Account and since 2000 there have been a total of 134,000 applications.

“However these numbers show us that those who are wounded in accidents do not know their rights and therefore do nothing to seek them,” said Küçük.

“The total number we have paid is close to 272 million Turkish Liras. However, when we make our preliminary assessments, we see that in 60 percent of traffic accidents that resulted in death and 50 percent of the accidents that resulted in maiming, there have been no applications filed,” he said.
Küçük explained that victims have up to two years to apply either in writing or through registered mail to the Assurance Account from the date of the accident. After the Assurance Account receives the necessary documentation, it makes its payments via a bank. Anyone can apply to the Assurance Account.

1.5 bln lira worth policies

In the first six months of 2012, there were 6.977 million traffic insurance policies drawn up. Insurance companies received a total of 1.5 billion Turkish Liras in insurance premiums for these policies and doled out a total of 1.1 billion liras in insurance claims in the same period. More specifically, insurance companies paid 897 million liras in financial claims, 263 million for death and maiming claim and 14.8 million liras for the treatment of the wounded.