Profiting from your pain, suffering and trauma

During September, I had an unavoidable and extremely traumatic car accident. A car in front of me had rolled, resulting in 1 person killed and 2 others critically injured. The body of a deceased elderly woman was laying in the middle of the lane that I was driving on. In order to avoid further disaster by running over the body or colliding with the overturned vehicle, I app**** my breaks and my car swerved to the point that I lost control of it and crashed into the road dividers on the highway. There are multiple credible witnesses and law enforcement officials who can verify my statement – including Odendal Breakdown Services – which is a Dial Direct approved towing operator, Metro EMS, City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue, SAPS, as well as the Traffic Officer who took statements at the scene.

I consciously chose not to risk harming any more human life and instead put my own life in danger by avoiding direct collision. I could have continued driving forward and driven over the deceased's body even more. I could have crashed into the car that had rolled over and injured / killed more people as they were getting out of the overturned car. Or I could have driven over the emergency services personnel who were trying to save the elderly woman's life before pronouncing her dead. I have been replaying this incident in my mind over and over, considering the least evil action in this scenario which would have prevented me from painfully dealing with Dial Direct right now. There is nothing I could have done to avoid that situation. I do not think that any sane person, including Dial Direct consultants, operators, assessors or anyone else who has a decent sense of humanity would have acted differently.

It has been well over a month since the claim was opened, and I am now physically, emotionally, and mentally tired of having to relive the same traumatic incident with Dial Direct. I am tired of having to re-explain the same situation over and over. My family has endured enough pain and suffering because of this accident. We do not have a car of our own anymore. I have paid over R20k for a car rental since the accident happened. It is extremely unfair that I have to suffer loss because I avoided direct collision with a car that had rolled over, where there was a dead body of an elderly woman laying on the highway, on the lane that I was driving on. My car has been written off because of this. Dial Direct is actively refusing to replace my car because they are only concerned about their profits rather than the preservation of human life in this situation.

Dial Direct refuses to repair or replace the car on the basis that it is their discretion to settle it with vehicle finance. We have spent over R80k on the car for it to just fall away and be given a lousy R2k as indicated on the claim breakdown. Is the purpose of insurance not to place you in the same position you were in before the accident occurred? I had a car before this accident happened. I was fine with paying the monthly installments, insurance, and other maintenance costs on the vehicle before this accident happened. I do not need any assistance with that. I should justifiably be provided with a choice on how to manage my own finances instead of being forced into a situation where I have to lose money and an entire car over an unavoidable accident where I was not at fault. I was advised that it will cost R169k to repair the vehicle, Dial Direct is willing to pay the bank’s R157k settlement figure, but I am not allowed to pay the R12k difference to repair the vehicle? I do not understand that logic. The claim operator also informed me that the car cannot be replaced because they do not have cars available from their list of approved dealerships. How is that my fault? I can find plenty of other dealerships which have the same car at the same mileage.

Whatever you presumably expect me to have done when this accident occurred, and what you are doing to me right now, surely cannot be legal given the nature of the accident. I am unhappy about the decision made on my claim. I took out the insurance policy so I can have peace of mind that the car will be replaced should any accident occur. I have been paying my premiums, and I did everything that was requested of me to secure the vehicle. I do not want your money; I just want my car replaced as agreed when I signed up for comprehensive vehicle cover with Dial Direct. That's the only fair and justifiable resolution to this.