RO 100 million paid for vehicle insurance claims

By Samuel Kutty — MUSCAT: April 10 - Claims relating to vehicle insurance reimbursement in road accidents exceeded RO 100 million in 2016. This was revealed by Abdullah al Salmi, Executive President of Capital Market Authority (CMA), while addressing a workshop on the third edition of Road Traffic Safety Competition-2017 in cooperation with the private sector. Al Salmi said, “this amount is a waste as it could be directed to be spent on better and purposeful development projects in the country”. The workshop was attended by officials from the Royal Oman Police (ROP), members of Oman Association for Road Safety, officials from Muscat Securities Market, public stock companies, firms operating in securities and insurance companies. According to Col Ahmed Sultan al Nabhani, Assistant Director General of Traffic, there has been a massive fall of 45 per cent in deaths in road accidents compared to 2012. “This achievement was made possible thanks to the dedicated and combined efforts of the ROP, institutions in both the public and private sector and individuals,” he said. Al Salmi said that the drop in the casualty rate is an indicator of the positive impact of His Majesty’s speech in Saih Al Makarim in 2010 calling for community cooperation in curbing road accidents. He stressed that the CMA played significant role in establishing electronic link between the ROP and insurance companies to create self-censorship driving concept. “We through Road Safety Competition, held in cooperation with Oman Association for Road Safety, aim to promote community participation level in reducing road accidents through initiatives, awareness programmes or controls that guarantee the achievements of road safety.” Ahmed al Mamari, General Director of Insurance Surveillance at CMA, said: “Road accidents are a major concern that exhaust financial and human resources. Accidents cause social and physiological problems and enormous financial losses. “To curb accidents, apart from awareness, cooperation from all sectors concerned is required,” he said. He said that the authority is upgrading technology to make insurance services available through electronic links. The regulator has already established an integrated database for electronic linkage between ROP and insurance companies. “This linkage provides details of road accidents which will enable insurance companies to decide on claims,” he said. Accidents on Sultanate’s roads have witnessed a significant drop of 26.1 per cent during the first two months of this year. In February 2017, 287 accidents were registered compared to January the month before with 318 and December 2016 with 426. While Muscat Governorate topped the list accounting for 35.5 per cent of accidents, Al Batinah stood second with 24 per cent. According to data from the National Centre for Statistics and Information quoting ROP sources, 63 per cent of the accidents occurred during day time. The number of persons suffered injuries fell 12.7 per cent year on year to reach 453 cases in January.