India’s insurance claims for crashes are low

Analysis into traffic crashes in India has revealed that only around half of the country’s road deaths in 2015/2016 resulted in insurance claims. There were around 146,000 road fatalities in India during this period. The problem has been revealed by India’s Supreme Court. There are suggestions that the families of many of the road death victims do not know that they are entitled to compensation. The Supreme Court has pointed out that the four major sector insurers holding around 90% of the country’s busines
October 24, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Analysis into traffic crashes in India has revealed that only around half of the country’s road deaths in 2015/2016 resulted in insurance claims. There were around 146,000 road fatalities in India during this period. The problem has been revealed by India’s Supreme Court. There are suggestions that the families of many of the road death victims do not know that they are entitled to compensation. The Supreme Court has pointed out that the four major sector insurers holding around 90% of the country’s business; National Insurance (NIC), New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance (OICL) and United India Insurance, collected over US$3.17 billion in premiums while only paying just over half of this towards claims for crashes. Of these, 24% of the claims were for fatal crashes.

India’s road safety record is very much in the spotlight as between 2013 and 2015, the rate of road deaths rose by 6%. However the number of insurance claims fell by 15% for the same period and payments to the families of victims dropped by 10%. The Supreme Court is pushing the Indian Government to take action and heighten awareness amongst families of their rights in regard to insurance claims following vehicle crashes.

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