23 June 2021

Julie Chambers
[FYI request #15505 email]

Tēnā koe Julie

Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-011240
Thank you for your email of 19 May 2021, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):

For each of the years 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, please provide the number of claims
lodged with ACC for compensation for child (children aged 0 to 14 years inclusive) vehicle
occupant fatality, that occurred during each of these years, and provide the outcome of each
claim (if accepted and when) and the total cost of payments made by ACC, for child vehicle
occupancy fatality for each year that the fatality occurred.

For clarification:  the Ministry of Health reports that there were 8 child vehicle occupant fatalities
of children aged 0 to 14 years of age (younger than 15) during 2012 .

Were 8 claims lodged with ACC for fatalities during 2012, and of the claims submitted,  what was
the outcome of each claim  (for example whether the claim was declined and if accepted, when
payments were made - the amount is not required ), and for fatalities that happened during
2012, how much did ACC pay out (in total) to claimants for child vehicle occupant fatality? This
would include if a claim for a fatality that year was accepted but not paid out until a subsequent
year.

On 16 June 2021, I advised you of an extension to the due date for our response. This was unfortunately
required as we needed to consult further with our analysts to obtain al  the data you requested.

Our response
Fatal claims are claims which resulted in the death of the injured person. The death may have occurred
at the scene of the injury or at any later time. The number may increase in the future if any clients with
non-fatal claims subsequently die of their injuries.

However, as described in the Notes tab on the spreadsheet, we are not always notified if someone with
non-fatal claims subsequently die of their injuries. Therefore, our numbers may not reflect the true
numbers of death of children from road accidents. You may like to refer to the Ministry of Transport’s
statistics, which are updated if a death occurs subsequent to a crash.

The attached spreadsheet provides the data you requested. Due to a misunderstanding, we received
more data than you requested and decided to provide it to you as you may find it of interest.

Cover decision for the eight claims lodged in 2012
In ACC’s record system, if a fatal claim is declined for cover, the fatal claim indicator is not applied. As
such, only fatal claims that are accepted are captured as fatal claims in ACC’s claims data set. Eight new
fatality claims were accepted in the 2012 year.

GOV-011240

From the ACC claims data set alone, we cannot confirm if the eight fatal claims for the 2012 year were
lodged for the same children that the Ministry of Health refers to in their statistics for the same year.

How many of the eight claims received a payment in a subsequent year
We can advise that of the eight claims three received a payment in a subsequent year (in 2013, 2014
and 2017 respectively). Usual y, we withhold claim numbers fewer than four, to protect the privacy of
our claimants. However, for your request we decided to release the actual numbers to assist you in your
research. Please be mindful of protecting people’s privacy when you refer to this data.

Notes about the data
When using the data provided please take into consideration the Notes on the first tab in the attached
spreadsheet.

How to contact us
If you have any questions or require any further clarification about the data provided, you can email me
at [email address].

Nāku iti noa, nā

Sasha Wood
Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement & Support

Accident Compensation Corporation
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