BLESSING wrote:I believe wazua can guide me on how to get in touch with the owner of a car that hit mine but it had no insurance cover and was being driven by a stranger who escaped. The car is at a police station but the owner has not shown up to claim the car. The police are not helping with the matter but I got the name of the car owner at KRA but no phone number.
Because the car had no insurance cover, I don't know how to recover the cost of repairing my car. I still feel using a lawyer will only cost me money that will not help very much but any idea that will help me either posses the other car to recover the damage or locate the owner for compensation. How do things work in such cases.
The guy driving the car during the accident is facing charges. The police say their job is not to locate the owner of the car but to help prosecute the man behind the wheel at the time of accident.
My car had a third party insurance cover. So, my insurance company cannot follow up on the matter.
Any good ideas great wazuans?
To begin with the Traffic Act CAP 405 makes it a basic requirement for all vehicles on the road to have such an insurance cover. In addition compulsory motor insurance cover was effected in the country in 1946 when The Insurance (Motor Vehicle Third Party Risks) Act was first passed and is a mandatory statutory requirement.
Certainly the driver of the offending vehicle will be charged with besides careless driving with falling afoul of this provision. To the accident, there is no basis in law that will allow the victim of the accident to take possession of the offending vehicle as reimbursement for the loss he sustained. The only remedy known to law that he can pursue is what in Kenya we call a Material Damage Claim which simply means that he will file a recovery claim against the driver of the vehicle and the owner who is vicariously liable for the drivers actions. However to succeed in a material damage claim you must repair the vehicle as the Court will only be able to order reimbursement on the basis of actual costs incurred.
As rightly pointed out in the question the Third party cover on the victim vehicle only covers the insured’s legal liability towards third parties in respect of death and bodily injury as well as property damage.
Please take note that the turn around time for Court cases is roughly about 1 year or slightly more. Feel free to send legal questions on the free legal questions SME section...
possunt quia posse videntur