Car Insurance - A Load Off Your Shoulders

By Author: Andries Malan
Total Articles: 15
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Statistically, there are hundreds of motor vehicle accidents in South Africa a day. These numbers range from major to minor accidents. Only about 30% of the vehicles on our roads are insured. Nowadays with the mortality rate on our roads, where 32 people die every day, it seems an almost metaphorical sigh of relief should your accident be deemed 'minor'. This is until you are quoted the tow-truck release and panel beating repair prices.

It is not unheard of for the repair of a dent and a few scratches to race into the thousands, an amount that can be nearly impossible to access. One would have to save for months and months, attempt to access a loan or most commonly, put the cost on their credit card in order to have their vehicle back in a decent condition.
With any of these options, should any of them even be possible for some people, it would mean a substantial amount of money removed from your budget every month.

It can almost seem ignorant to not take the necessary precaution of insuring your vehicle for a reasonable fee every month. Unfortunately, in all honesty, many people feel car insurance is expensive; ...
... a monthly bill that can fluctuate and change as breezily as the interest rate does. Perhaps these people have the 'it will never happen to me' mentality, or they believe if it does - it is something they will 'deal with when the time comes.'

The former can be led straight back to the statistics: if there is such a high percentage of motor vehicle accidents on our roads every day, the chance of being one of those statistics is alarmingly high. One also has to take into consideration that a large number of accidents are the 'other driver's' fault! And what will happen if the 'other driver' does not have insurance? And no money with which to repair your damaged vehicle? Who will repair the damages to your vehicle then? So therefore, it doesn't matter if you are the best driver in the world, it could happen to you.

With regards to the mentality of those who will 'deal with it when the time comes,' I want to depict the tale of an unfortunate man in a movie I watched recently:

This man was involved in a motor vehicle accident with his wife and child. He wakes from a severe concussion a week later only to be told the devastating news that his wife and child did not survive the accident.
Upon his return home, he is absorbed in the realization of his loss when there is a knock at his door. It's his lawyer who explains that, seeing as the grieving man was responsible for the accident, in which another vehicle was involved, he is responsible for all the damages. Unfortunately, the mourning man did not have insurance, and has to promptly proceed to sell some of his most valuable and cherished assets to cover the cost of the accident.

As you can imagine, this unexpected turn of events was an almost unbearable burden for the grieving man to deal with.
In addition to losing the two most important and loved people in his life, he had to endure drawn - out court cases and unnecessary insurance hearings.

In conclusion, it is quite obvious that the benefits of car insurance far outweigh the costs. It may seem inconvenient to one's budget to have to pay money every month for something that may never happen. Yet it is a small price to pay for the peace of mind in knowing that you are protected in the incidence of fault on your, or someone else's part.