The Road Accident Fund provides compensation for:

  • medical expenses that result from a motor vehicle accident
  • funeral expenses in the case of a death caused by an accident
  • general damages for pain and suffering, provided you suffered a serious injury (as determined with reference to set criteria), have lost an unborn child or have sustained serious disfigurement, mental impairment or the loss of a bodily function
  • loss earnings, if you were unable to work as a result of an accident
  • loss of support, if a household’s main income provider was killed in a road accident that resulted from someone else’s negligence.

Who can claim from the Road Accident  Fund

Drivers, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists can all claim from the Road Accident Fund, as long as they were not entirely responsible for the accident.

You can claim from the RAF if:

  • you were injured in an accident and were not the driver solely responsible for the accident
  • you’re the driver responsible for the accident but not the owner of the vehicle, and the accident was a result of the owner’s negligence (for example, because the owner failed to replace worn brake pads on the vehicle)
  • you’re a child, spouse or other person who was dependent on the income of a person killed in an accident; for more information, see our article on claiming for someone deceased
  • you’re a close relative of the deceased and paid for this person’s funeral.

You cannot claim from the RAF if:

  • you were the driver and are the owner of the vehicle solely responsible for the accident
  • you were the only person involved in the accident (for example, you were injured because you crashed your vehicle into a tree or other obstacle, and nothing else, such as badly maintained roads, contributed to the accident).

 

Road Accident Fund