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The Electric New Paper : http://www.tnp.sg/news/story/0,4136,214715,00.html? Accident victim gets insurance shock He says taxi driver admitted fault, but insurance report claims he was responsible WHEN Mr K Shashi's Jaguar was rear-ended by a taxi, he thought he would have no problems claiming insurance for the damage. By Zaihan Mohamed Yusof 24 September 2009 WHEN Mr K Shashi's Jaguar was rear-ended by a taxi, he thought he would have no problems claiming insurance for the damage. After all, the taxi driver who hit him had admitted fault on the spot. But the accident report turned out to be different. The report from the cabby's insurance company read that the cabby had claimed in his 'statement' that Mr Shashi was at fault. When Mr Shashi confronted the cabby, the latter said the accident report was not written by him. All he did was sign on a blank form. Someone else had filled in the details, the cabby claimed. So was it a false statement or was it a mistake? Mr Shashi still doesn't know. The accident happened on 31 Jul. Mr Shashi said he had just exited the expressway at East Coast Parkway and stopped at a slip road to give way to a vehicle on Fort Road. Jolt from the rear It was about 11pm and visibility was clear. All of a sudden, he felt a jolt from the rear as a taxi hit him. According to Mr Shashi, the cabby, whom we will not name due to an ongoing investigation, apologised. So Mr Shashi thought all he needed to do was to make a third party insurance claim against the cabby. It wasn't to be. The repair on his Jaguar was eventually delayed for more than a month. The reason? The cabby's accident report stated that Mr Shashi had cut into the taxi's lane, causing the taxi driver to jam his brakes and hit the Jaguar. Said Mr Shashi, 35, a financial adviser: 'If I had cut into the taxi's lane, like what was said in his report, the damage to my car would have been different. I was stationary when I was hit.' He confronted the taxi driver on the telephone, and was surprised when the cabby said that the report was wrong. The 38-year-old taxi driver told The New Paper: 'I never said that he had switched lanes at the last minute.' Asked why then did the report state otherwise, he said he did not know the reason. He added: 'I know I should not have signed a blank report, but I was in a hurry to attend a class. If I had known this would have caused so much trouble, I would have read it before signing.' The cabby said he had lodged the report at his company's workshop the day after the accident. He claimed the report was written by a 'non-Singaporean' workshop staff. 'I think there was a miscommunication. He may have misunderstood what really happened,' said the cabby. He told The New Paper he planned to see his insurance company about this. But he later sent a text message to us to say he had been sacked. This could not be independently verified. In the meantime, Mr Shashi said he had only received permission to proceed with the repairs on 7 Sep, after making numerous calls to the cabby's insurance company and workshop. Said Mr Shashi: 'I feared that if the insurance company did not believe me, then I would have to foot my car's repair bills. 'There is something wrong here. As far as I know, accident reports must be truthful, and not something that can change like the weather. I just want to find out who filed the wrong report.' The repair bill, assessed by Mr Shashi's workshop, came close to $10,000. Recorded conversation To get proof that the cabby had agreed with Mr Shashi's version of how the accident had happened, Mr Shashi even recorded their conversation. He also made a police report. Two lawyers The New Paper talked to said that Mr Shashi did the right thing by lodging a police report. At present, there is no deterrence for making a false report in accident cases, said lawyer Satwant Singh. But if a police report is made, the cabby's account may form part of the evidence that a false report had been filed with an insurance company, he said. Said Mr Singh: 'I strongly believe that all accidents should be reported to the police because people will think twice about twisting the truth. 'Most importantly motorists will pay close attention to what is written in the accident reports.' Lawyer Chris Fam said in the last week of this month he came across similar cases. In one case a driver claimed 'the other side put in a false story'. Another said 'somebody else filled inaccurate statements for me', said Mr Fam. When contacted, a spokesman for the General Insurance Association said the association was 'looking into the matter to ascertain the details in order to offer the required assistance to Mr Shashi'. 'As such, it may not be appropriate for comments to be made at this point,' the spokesman added. Both the taxi and insurance companies did not return calls.