National Transport Insurance (NTI) has held an information seminar for insurance brokers to present the findings of the recently released Major Accident Investigation Report compiled by the National Truck Accident Research Centre (NTARC).
The presentation saw Owen Driscoll (pictured), NTI National Manager, Industry Relations and Director of NTARC, address more than 30 brokers who manage insurance programs for both large and small transport companies.
The Major Accident Report, the fifth in the current series, provides detailed information on the causes of heavy vehicle crashes in the ‘hire and reward’ road transport sector during 2011. The research is used to establish support programs and technologies to reduce the number of trucks involved in serious accidents.
NTI announced it will fund new research into truck fires. The NTARC has been commissioned to investigate all non-impact associated losses registered with the insurer in the past five years following findings in the Major Accident Investigation Report.
Driscoll said, “Claims data researched on truck fires has established unequivocally that there are simply too many fires and this must be arrested. Fire accounted for 12.1 per cent of the 461 reported losses (major incidents over $50,000 during 2011) representing over $9 million in settlements with the average loss $170,129.
“Since the release of the latest report we have established NTI has settled over 450 fire associated claims since 2007 with losses accounting for $36 million in payments. In addition, uninsured costs borne by transport operators are substantial,” he added.
While NTI has a major share of the heavy vehicle insurance market, the study also acknowledged it will need to extend beyond NTI’s own claims database to gain a full perspective of the extent of the problem.
“The NTARC has identified the problem, we will now conduct specific research to establish the common cause. This research will initially include a national survey of all fire losses in the past five years,” Owen said.