When Members of the House of Assembly meet Wednesday one of the bills high on the agenda will be a proposed piece of legislation to amend the Road Traffic Act to limit the liability of insurance companies.
Members have just nine days to meet a fast-approaching deadline to pass the amendment.
The bill would limit an individual claim to $2.5 million while allowing for claims of $30 million for one accident.
Last year, representatives of the insurance industry said that their reinsurers – the larger foreign companies that absorb big insurance claims – notified them that this year they would no longer offer unlimited insurance coverage for accidental death and injury.
Local insurance executives also warned the government that failure to address the issue, which means amending the Road Traffic Act, could lead to insurance companies not issuing certificates for the approximately 100,000 registered cars on New Providence roads.
“There are only about four reinsurers in the world that have in the past done unlimited liability,” Robin Hardy, coordinator of The Bahamas General Insurance Association, said in an interview with the Journal last October. “They are saying they won’t do it in the future and it means we won’t be able to issue certificates of insurance for new policies and renewals from the first of January.”
Minister Hanna-Martin said on Friday that the Bill is necessary to maintain the availability of certain types of insurance coverage to the motoring public under the Road Traffic Act. She added that the necessary amendments would bring the Bahamas into conformity with international industry standards.
“Reinsurers have withdrawn support for insurance contracts that require unlimited liability, initially with effect from the end of the calendar year 2003, but negotiations between my Ministry and the insurance industry have secured an extension of 30 days,” Minister Hanna-Martin said.
She said that because the Bill would have to be debated in both the House of Assembly and the Senate, her ministry may have to asked for some more time.
“This is a trend that is happening worldwide,” she said.
Minister Hanna-Martin said the local insurance companies have assured her Ministry that the amendments would not affect the premium to the consumer.
οΎ ”The main concern from the international insurers is that they want to see that we are responding to the pressure that the insurance companies in the Bahamas are under,” she said. “The concern we have is that if insurers say that motorists wouldn’t find insurance in the Bahamas for their vehicles, that would be a serious state of affairs.”
Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal
