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  • February 11, 2025
People jumping in front of cars to collect injury payouts sparks a grim holiday warning in South Africa

People jumping in front of cars to collect injury payouts sparks a grim holiday warning in South Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A trend in South Africa of people jumping in front of slow-moving cars to receive compensation for injuries prompted a warning Tuesday from the government’s national Road Accident Fund.

In a statement, the report said the phenomenon of people being deliberately hit near intersections and stop streets is becoming a significant problem, while acknowledging that some cases may be driven by poverty and desperation at an expensive time of year .

“We recognize that road users may face socio-economic challenges,” the fund said.

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The RAF offers people the opportunity to claim compensation from a national fund if they are injured in car accidents.

But it warned it was clamping down on false claims after identifying the new trend. It said people waited for vehicles to “slow down enough so they didn’t get killed” before throwing themselves in front of or against the cars to simulate an accident.

“The RAF will not compensate anyone who intentionally causes a motor vehicle accident, even if it results in serious injury,” the report said.

The fund did not say how many cases of people being deliberately hit by cars, but said it had rejected almost 50,000 claims in the period between February 2022 and February this year, some because they were fraudulent.

The warning comes ahead of South Africa’s notoriously dangerous holiday season on roads. The RAF said that on average more than 1,500 people are killed in road accidents in South Africa during the holiday period between early December and January 11. About 40% of these fatalities are pedestrians, the RAF said.

“Road users are also urged to remember that the fund does not reimburse the death itself, but only pays the actual costs of cremating or burying the deceased in a grave,” the fund said in a grim holiday message.

The RAF said it paid out $2.5 billion in claims in the 2023-2024 financial year.

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