The court has given a widow green light to sue the Road Accident Fund RAF for her husband's death caused by a tyre that had been left on the road by a negligent truck driver who had a tyre burst.
Louise Hartman had taken the Fund to court for it to determine if the abandoned tyre on the side of the road indeed caused the car crash that killed her husband, Helgaard, on the N7 highway near Malmelsbury, Western Cape, in November 2007. The Fund wanted to be absolved in the matter denying that the tyre caused the single-car accident.
According to judge J Ralarala's ruling, Hartman, who was a housewife at the time of her husband's death, had told the court that she was unemployed and financially dependent on the deceased. She said his passing put her in a difficult financial situation. She wanted to lodge a loss of support claim from RAF, but it was contested based on the facts of the cause of the car crash that claimed Helgaard's life.