MVA has to shell out N$243-m to Simon crash survivors

THE financial toll that former world champion boxer Harry Simon’s deadly car accident between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund in November 2002 will take on the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund and Namibia’s taxpayers has ballooned to a staggering N$243 million.

The last of the claims that the survivors of the crash, in which three Belgian visitors to Namibia were killed, had lodged with the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund of Namibia were settled yesterday.With the settlement, which was made an order of the High Court, the MVA Fund has now agreed to pay a total of about N$243,6 million, when calculated in Namibian currency and with interest payments included, to the four survivors of the accident.Of this amount, the MVA Fund agreed to pay N$203,7 million to Belgian specialist dentist Carol Cornelis, who was one of the survivors of the accident, over the next 25 years.Cornelis’s husband, medical doctor Frederic de Winter, and their 22-month-old daughter, Ibe de Winter, were killed in the collision, which happened on November 21 2002 when a speeding vehicle driven by Simon smashed head-on into a stationary rental car in which Cornelis, her family, and another Belgian family were waiting to turn off to Langstrand between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.Simon ultimately spent a year and nine months of a two-year sentence in prison after he was convicted of culpable homicide in connection with the crash. In addition to losing her family, Cornelis (39) sustained serious injuries – including head injuries – in the accident. She has been left permanently disabled.Cornelis had been working as an orthodontist in Belgium before the crash. Because of the injuries she suffered, she will not be able to continue with her career as before.With the settlement reached yesterday, the MVA Fund agreed to pay Cornelis N$21 million by Friday next week to compensate her for damages suffered as a result of the accident. The fund will also pay her a total of some 16,461 million euro (the equivalent of about N$182,7 million at the current exchange rate) over the next 25 years to compensate her for the loss of earnings that she will be suffering as a result of the accident.The other claims that were finally settled yesterday are those of Belgian medical doctor Bert Coene (39) and his two children, who all survived the crash with serious injuries. Coene’s wife and the children’s mother, Michelle de Clerck (29), was also killed in the crash.Coene and his children’s claims against the MVA Fund were partially settled in March this year when the MVA Fund agreed to pay them a total of about N$23,93 million. The method of the payment of about N$13,78 million of that amount however remained in dispute at the time of that settlement, but has also now been settled.In yesterday’s settlement, the MVA Fund agreed that it would pay 1,065 million euro (now the equivalent of about N$11,82 million) to Coene on behalf of his eight-year-old daughter over a five-year period to compensate her for a loss of future earnings as a result of the permanent injuries she suffered. With interest included, this comes to N$14,18 million at the current exchange rate.The MVA Fund also agreed to pay Coene one million euro (about N$11,1 million) in five yearly instalments to compensate him for his own loss of future earnings as a result of the injuries he suffered. With interest included, this will amount to N$15,54 million at the current exchange rate.Addressing a media briefing on the settlement yesterday, MVA Fund Chief Executive Officer Jerry Muadinohamba said the fund, which has been registering an actuarial deficit for the past five years, ‘remains financially sound’.He said the MVA Fund will be able to meet its immediate liabilities to the Belgian claimants. However, the MVA Fund would have to approach Government for consultations to meet the long-term liabilities it has now settled on, he said.’It is worth noting that the Belgian claim arose at a time when the liability of the fund to pay compensation was unlimited until 2 January 2003,’ Muadinohamba said. ‘This means that upon proof the fund would pay the actual loss or damage suffered by the claimants and foreigners would be compensated at the equivalent of the exchange rate of the currency in their country of origin.’