As of 03 September 2008, the emergency response number became a toll free number and the public are now able to report motor vehicle accidents as and when they occur at no cost to the caller.
This arrangement is currently only applicable to MTC customers and consultations are underway between the MVA Fund, Cell One and Telecom to expand accessibility to the broader public.
Once a call has been made to the accident response number, the call centre operator will ask the following questions?
Name of the caller?
Place of accident?
Number of people injured?
Number of vehicles involved?
The MVA Fund will cover the cost of transporting accident victims from the accident scene to the nearest health care facility. After the patient has been stabilized, the Fund will determine whether the patient’s benefits are subject to exclusions and limitations.
Decisions to transfer patients are made on medical grounds by the treating doctor.
The MVA Fund would like to encourage the general public to make use of this number to report all motor vehicle accidents for timely emergency response.
In 2007, the MVA Fund launched the emergency response number (0819 682), which also translates into 0819 MVA. Once this number is dialed, the MVA Fund Call Centre is notified of the accident and then alerts the nearest ambulance, police and the MVA Fund investigators to attend to the accident scene with minimum delay. The injured person is then picked up from the accident scene to the nearest health care facility and is treated until the point of stabilization.