Seat Belts, Accidents and Claims to the Road Accident Fund

Question

Can a person who is a passenger in a car make a claim to the Road Accident Fund if they are not wearing a seat-belt? By enforcing seatbelt wearing legislation in this country we could save the government millions in medical care alone for those people injured because they failed to buckle-up. Surely it would be a joke if those same people (who were injured as a result of failure to use their seatbelts) were also able to claim further compensastion for injuries that they are themselves responsible for because they decided against using their seat belt? I have not been able to find any information on this and would love to hear how it works.

Answer

Thanks for referring the query .

All motor vehicle passengers are compensated by the Road Accident Fund for injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident.  The reason is that the blame cannot be put on the passenger for the actual accident.
However where the passenger did not wear a seatbelt his/her claim is apportioned. This means that the  compensation paid out is apportioned by a  certain percentage for failure to wear a seat belt.

The percentage differs from one case to another, for instance, where a person deliberately refused to wear a seat belt,  his or her apportionment will be high.

I hope the response answers your question.