Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Assessment of liability

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Assessment of liability

Dear Mr. Tan

My car lately got involved in an accident (side collision) at no fault of mine. The driver cut into my lane, done damage to my car and twisted the whole story to say it was my fault.

I had no evidences against him(no pics, no eye witness), hence, the verdict of the liability status given by INCOME was, I am to be responsible for 50% of this accident's fault.

But I am the victim of the accident. Yet I am to be responsible for the other party's irresponsible driving.

I disputed against this 50% liability status with INCOME. But their assessment still stands. But deriving at the liability status basing merely on statement provided, has done unjustice to my case. INCOME did not carried out any professional inspection
on my car, to at least gathered some 'collision evidence', like the angle and dent on my car, how can it be possibly me swerving into the other party's lane.

I wish to know who i can turn to dispute against this unfair assessment?

Mdm Ong

REPLY
Income has to make the assessment based on the available evidence. Under this type of situation, an assessemnt of 50% liability seems to be reasonable - especially as you are not able to produce evidence that the other party swerve to hit your car.

It is possible that the other party could have made a statement that you swerve your car to hit his car. It is one person's word against another.

If you still feel aggrieved about the decision, you can lodge a complaint with FIDREC (www.fidrec.com.sg).

Dear Mr Tan

Thank you for taking your precious time to answer my question. Indeed, the other party has made the statement to say that my car swerve into his lane, which is an falseful allegation.

I had told INCOME I will raise my dispute to FiDREC and INCOME has actually asked me to go ahead with it for any mediation.

I guess for this case, I will have to let it rest and just blame it on my bad luck. I think FiDREC can't do much about it since I do not have any evidence against the other party.

Mdm Ong

11 comments:

Anonymous said...: Mdm Ong

Thanks for the sharing the story.

Yes its an eye opening taste of the legal perspective that many of whom had not had that mis-experience, rather the mis-fortune of that mis-experience.; November 22, 2008 5:55 PM
Anonymous said...: I am not a car expert but common sense tells me that there is a distinct difference between hitting and being hit. When you brought your car to the workshop, don't they first take a picture of it? This seems to be a very reasonable thing to do when you have an accident, take a picture. Any handphone camera can also do that.
Even if no picture, Income panel of experts should be able to tell whether you got hit or you did the hitting.
Don't tell me Income management is still so engrossed with their comfortable chairs that they do not want to get out of it to do something? Or are they out having a good time at some far off exotic holiday spot still?; November 22, 2008 8:43 PM
Anonymous said...: I have the experience of a small truck banged into the back of my car while I was stationery at the junction waiting for the traffice light to turn green. The truck driver in his report stated that I reversed my car and banged into his truck!; November 22, 2008 9:12 PM
Anonymous said...: Paging ALL Investors!! Pls read and disseminate these articles and the remarks herein

Get a sense of legal justice on this Little Red Dot

This is more or less the kind of treatment you would be getting in your quest for Compensation

Its called Word against Word, aka Grey Area, you may claim a dinosaur pop out of the ground and try to eat up your Laksa, but usually benefit of doubts will go to logical assessments and paper play.; November 22, 2008 10:45 PM
Anonymous said...: I related my experience some time ago in this blog.

I was hit by another car but the damage sustained to my car was very minor. So I did not make a claim but made a report to my own insurance company.

The other party claim about $2K damages via a lawyer. My insurance company, AX. just paid up without consulting me although my report stated the situation quite clearly.

The punch line:
My NCB was reduced and the extra premiums they could collect from me over 3 years was about $750 + $500 and $250. A total of $1500.

Thus, effectively, I am paying for most of AX.'s in-competence!

THE INSURANCE COMPANY HAS NO INCENTIVE TO PROTECT ITS CLIENT'S INTEREST!; November 23, 2008 12:12 AM
Raymond T said...: Take pictures. I keep a Canon camera handy in my glove compartment to be prepared for all eventualities.

In fact, a couple of years ago, a TIBS bus hit me from behind and wanted me to compensate them. Lucky I took pictures immediately of my car's behind and the TIBs front area and the surrounding vicinity. The point of impact clearly shows the bus had hit the car squarely from behind, rather than if my car had swerved into his lane.

Very important evidence to keep! :D; November 23, 2008 12:18 AM
siewkhim said...: Dear friends,

This is a real example to show that dishonesty is the policy. By being dishonest you can get away with murder.Another real example is in Malaysia where many people with powerful connection shot a beautiful mongolian girl on the head and blow her body with C4.

This is the world we live in. Dishonesty can be the best policy.; November 23, 2008 12:32 AM
Anonymous said...: To clarify, there is not such thing as Dishonesty

Theres only Naivety.; November 23, 2008 10:11 AM
Kim said...: I dispute my case with INCOME.
And the claim they will escalate my case to committees, made up of panel of managers to review my case. The thing is, they still made the assesment based on words/statement.
I am in not time to take pics becos the collision happened on a highway. The truck driver just move the vehicle to the side immediately after the collision. Hence, the pics taken is the 'after-event' pics, which serves no purpose. I took my car to IDAC to report the accident and they taken pics also.
I guess under the law, in this kind of grey area, whereby assessment of liability is words against words, then what is the purpose of buying insurance ?
NO PROTECTION AT ALL.; November 24, 2008 10:10 AM
Anonymous said...: Hi Mdm Ong and those reading this blog,

After reading this post, I was really dishearted. Last week, I met with a similar accident.

After exiting PIE(towards Changi Airport)via Sim Ave exit, my car was slowing down as there's quite a queue since its peak hours in the morning and the traffic light was red then. Travelling along 2nd lane, heading towards Geylang Road junction, my car was approaching the cross junction and suddenly a blue Comfort taxi came and hit my driver side of the car.

I was shocked. The first thing that came to my mind was to check if my wife and daughter is ok. The queue on 1st lane was longer than 2nd lane, that taxi must have wanted to switch lane since queue on 2nd lane was shorter (did he check his "blind spot"). My driver side door was jammed thus I couldn't get out(taxi still beside my car blocking.) I opened my window and saw the taxi was inbetween lane 1 and 2....

Luckily, no one was injured. The driver came to me, comfired that I was ok, apologised and explained he didn't see my car coming before he switch lane. He even advise me since no one was injured, lets move both cars to the road side to settle our accident,traffic was building up then.

Without considering much since everyone was ok, I shifted my car without taking any pictures at that moment...

After we shifted our cars to the road side, he came to me saying "Hey sir, how can you drive into my lane without checking if there's a car beside!!" I was furious. Since lane 1 was packed with cars and I was travelling along lane 2, why would I cut into his lane when I was going straight?

Well, everyone I spoke to said I shouldn't have moved the car. The taxi driver was so "kind" to advise moving both cars. No pics was taken to prove I was within my lane and the other party came in and hit me...

Taxi's left front lighting broke. Mine was scratched from the back door, driver door was damaged, front right tyre bursted. If from the look of the damaged could judge where the impact was from or better off whose fault was it that cause the accident, but I doubt no pic, no prove huh...INCOME called stating that the taxi had launched a claim against me...

My estimated cost of repair is $9000!! How much do you think the taxi will need? $500 most??

End of the day, everyone can say that's my side of the story. Bad luck for that day I guess? I really hope there's still justice around.

(sorry for the long story but I am really dishearted with what humans can do/say to keep their own interest); November 26, 2008 1:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Hi

I really can feel your upset cos we both met the same incidents. I was travelling along TPE at that time and was also in middle lane.
Why would i want to move my vehicle to the left lane (a slowing moving lane) when my intention of exit is not at Punggol.
I was furious also when i learnt that the other party actually claim against my insurance.
I check with INCOME the other party's repair cost and how does it affect my premium. INCOME's reply was that regardless of the repair cost (which in this case the other party's claim against my insurance was only $377.50), my NCD will definitely reduced from 40% to 10%.
Sigh...well, we can be relieved that there is still justice in this world ultimately and this is what we called Karma.
Other than this to comfort ourselves, we definitely cannot turn to INCOME for justice.
Imagine, the cost of repair against my insurance is only $377.50. But my next renewal premium will definitely increase by double this amount. So evenutally, buying insurance is not to insure against ourselves, but rather to fatten the pocket of the insurer....
So remember, we all learn from mistakes, if the next time things do happened again, which we hope not, remember, take pics on the spot without moving the vehicles...
But for my case, immediately after the collision, the driver hurried to move his vehicle to the side, without me having any chance to take pics.

Mdm Ong; November 26, 2008 11:17 PM