Nat Molomo
MASERU — The father of a 13-year-old student who was allegedly hit by a taxi five years ago is suing the Lesotho National Insurance Group (LNIG) for M100 000. Telang Mokheche claims in his summons that the taxi driver Dyke Mohale lost control of the vehicle and swerved off the road before knocking his daughter, Ntaoleng Mokheche, who was walking on the pavement.
The incident took place on February 3, 2008 at Ha Mabote near Makakole’s Car Wash. Mokheche told Acting Chief Justice Tšeliso Monaphathi in the High Court on Thursday that he also needed M20 000 to cater for his daughter’s future medical expenses. “Since the accident we have had to fit her with artificial teeth some of which are cracking and one is missing,” Mokheche said. He told the court that his daughter had since developed a chronic headache and that her face had been disfigured after she sustained wounds on her face in the accident.
Mokheche handed receipts totaling M410 as payment for dental services. He said when he arrived at the scene of the accident he saw that his daughter had been knocked well outside the road on the pavement.
Mokheche testified that he never had time to talk to the driver of the taxi as he was in a state of confusion.
He told the court that he wants judgment against the defendant in the sum of M100 400 at the rate of 18.5 percent per annum calculated from 14 days from the date of judgment.
He also wants the LNIG to be ordered to pay costs. Cross-examined by Advocate P Loubser for LNIG, Mokheche told the court that he did not see the accident and therefore could not explain how it happened.
Asked what the future medical expenses were for, Mokheche said the money will cater for the teeth that had been replaced.
Mokheche said he had been advised by experts that his daughter will need the money he had claimed to cater for future medical expenses. Loubser told him that the claim was excessive but Mokheche insisted the figures he had claimed were correct and reasonable. In her testimony, Ntaoleng Mokheche, who is now 13, told the court that on the fateful day she and her friend, only identified as ‘Malimakatso, were walking to the shops when suddenly a taxi veered off the road and knocked her unconscious.
“The taxi hit me after I had crossed the road. I was not in the middle of the road and was already on the edge of the road when it hit me,” she said. She insisted that although she could not vividly remember what happened she was sure that she had not been negligent. “I think the driver was the one who was negligent. I don’t know how the taxi hit me but I had already crossed the road,” she said.
Ntaoleng told the court that she had scratches on her forehead as well as a wound on the face. “I have temporary teeth on the upper jaw and about four front teeth are artificial,” she said. She said one of the artificial teeth has a scratch and she cannot use it to bite anything hard. The witness was being led in her evidence by Advocate Tšeliso Fosa. The case continues.
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