On the 14th of June the Health Professions Councils, RAF appeal tribunal held that they where satisfied that Mr. F’s injuries where indeed serious as defined in the RAF amendment act.

In 2010 Mr F was involved in a serious motor vehicle collision and sustained various injuries which resulted in him requiring a hip replacement.

In terms of the amended Road Accident Fund Act, for a person to qualify for general damages their injury must be accepted as serious as defined. For the injury to be accepted the person must assessed to have a whole person impairment (WPI) of 30% or higher. Alternatively their injuries must be assessed as serious based on what we call a narrative test. Mr F only scored 14% WPI but his narrative test clearly indicated that his injuries should be accepted as serious. The RAF ignored his narrative test and rejected his injuries as not being serious.

We took the matter on appeal to the HPCSA appeal tribunal who found that his injuries where indeed serious. This allowed us to then proceed to court where the court awarded him R463 000 in general damages as well as ordering the RAF to provide an undertaking to cover all his medical expenses that he may incur in the future as a result of the accident.