There is not even a single day in our life when we don’t hear news about accidents. Accidents and deaths caused due to it are increasing day by day. A personal accident cover provides coverage for medical expenses if the vehicle owner dies or gets injured in an accident. It is an add-on cover that a comprehensive insurance policy holder can buy by paying an extra amount in the premium. In this article, we are going to discuss in detail about Compulsory Personal Accident (CPA) cover which is of immense benefit to the vehicle owners.
Benefits of Compulsory Personal Accident Cover for vehicle owners
- It is the best available protection option for securing vehicle owners from any sort of accidental injuries.
- According to this policy, if the vehicle owner meets with an accident while riding his/her vehicle, he/she will be provided with financial aid which will help to cover medical expenses incurred during their treatment. It includes their hospitalization charges, medical bills and treatment costs.
- The vehicle owner will be provided with monetary compensation if they become permanently disabled due to the accident.
- CPA cover will give compensation to the family members of the vehicle owner if the accident results in vehicle owner’s death.
Is CPA Cover mandatory for vehicle owners?
In India, it is mandatory for all vehicle owners to own a personal accident cover. This cover has to be purchased by the vehicle owner irrespective of whether they are buying a third-party liability-only policy or comprehensive policy for their vehicle. In case a vehicle owner doesn’t own a CPA Cover under their vehicle insurance, they will be liable for legal action as per the laws of the country.
The main aim of CPA cover is to make sure that all the vehicle owners are covered against personal accidents up to the minimum mandated coverage limit. According to the India Motor Tariff 2002, personal accident cover is issued compulsorily with every vehicle insurance policy. Thus, it is granted as part of the comprehensive policy as well as the third-party liability-only policy.
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Compulsory Personal Accident compensation for the vehicle driver
As per CPA cover, if a vehicle owner’s death occurs due to an accident, compensation of Rs. 15 lakhs will be given without any court procedures. Most people forget to avail CPA when taking Motor Insurance through the online insurance process. If you take a policy without CPA, it is not possible.
All you need to do is to add this CPA on that insurance certificate. When you take this CPA, in case you have more than one vehicle, then you don’t have to take CPA cover for all the vehicles.
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For instance, suppose if a person dies in an accident and he/she had taken CPA in only one vehicle but he/she died when riding in another vehicle owned by him/her then, compensation of Rs. 15 lakhs won’t be given. The compensation will be only given if that person had CPA for the vehicle in which he/she travelled when the death occurred.
Benefits of Stand Alone Policy if you have more than 1 vehicle
If you have a Stand Alone Policy(SPA) that is not issued on any particular vehicle but on your name, this Stand Alone Policy can be used for any number of vehicles owned by you. You just have to pay Rs. 350 to get these benefits. Some companies issue CPA for a much lesser amount. The maximum amount is Rs. 350 including taxes. This Stand Alone Policy can be attached to all your vehicles when they are taken or renewed.
Now you will be having a doubt regarding if we renew the insurance on different occasions, what happens then. The most important thing is that you need to have a valid Stand Alone Policy all the time. Any time you take or renew your insurance, you have to attach this SAP to those vehicles. When an accident occurs, police will register an FIR. In such a scenario, you should produce this FIR and related documents at an insurance company. The legal heir of the vehicle owner will get Rs. 15 lakhs as compensation.
When you buy a new motorcycle, you will get insurance for 5 years duration and if you buy a car you will get 3 years insurance. In that, you will get comprehensive insurance for 1 year and third party insurance for the remaining time, which is termed as Bundled Insurance Policy. You have the option to take CPA for 5 years for bikes and 3 years for cars.
No need to buy CPA cover more than once
As per the rules and regulations, vehicle owners can skip buying the CPA cover if they already own one. For instance, if you have two cars and purchased a CPA cover while insuring the first car, you don’t have to purchase it again while insuring your second car.
Earlier, CPA cover came as an in-built component of a vehicle insurance policy. As a result, vehicle owners had to purchase a CPA cover everytime they purchased vehicle insurance for a new vehicle in addition to the existing vehicle. This finally led to multiple CPA covers providing the same covering but coming at an additional premium cost.
Making note of this unnecessary cash spent by the vehicle owners for CPA cover, the IRDAI decided to unbundle personal accident cover from car insurance allowing people to purchase the cover only once.