Malaysian Motor Losses Driven Up
The General Insurance Association of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur has expressed grave concern over the high incidence of accidents involving commercial vehicles, which is seriously affecting insurance business in the country.
The association also indicated an urgent need to review premium rates on motor insurance in the country in view of the high rate of accidents.
Quoting from accident data released by the Royal Police Malaysia, the association pointed out that one out of four buses meets with an accident every year. Police statistics show that commercial vehicles are most vulnerable to accidents, while private cars are vulnerable to theft.
The General Insurance Association of Malaysia, known locally as Persatuan Insurn Am Malaysia, has a large number of foreign insurers as members. They include American Home Assurance, Zurich Insurance, American International Assurance Co. Ltd., the Pacific Insurance Company, Malaysia British Assurance and Tokyo Marine and Fire.
PIAM said that the third-party or public-liability insurance claims paid by insurers in accident cases involving commercial vehicles often amount to much more than the vehicles' value.
Analyzing the claims situation in the Malaysian motor insurance market, PIAM said claims from accidents involving buses were six times higher than accidents involving taxis and private cars.
Further, PIAM said, the amount of third-party property damages and claims due to deaths and injuries in accidents involving trucks was double that of private cars and taxis. The accident rate for taxis is 12.2 percent, 7.8 percent in the case of trucks and about 7 percent for private cars, said PIAM.
The police said the causes of most accidents are speeding, careless driving, reckless overtaking, careless cornering, tail-gating and generally poor driving attitude on the part of the drivers of commercial vehicles.
PIAM Executive Director Lim Chia Fook has also expressed concern over the fact that the incidence of theft of vehicles, particularly private cars, went up 16 percent in 2000. At least one car is stolen every two hours in Malaysia, PIAM said.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, July 13, 2001. Copyright 2001 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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