Management and establishments might have experienced instances when the Protection of Personal Information Act, commonly referred to as POPI, is easily used as a protective halo by those having to face the music in cases of accidents, injuries or complex circumstances.
This was highlighted in the cautionary tale of a 13-year-old girl that sustained serious injuries on a toboggan ride at the beloved family toboggan park, CoolRunnings Cape Town in Bellville.
However, when a person is found to be responsible for incidents or accidents resulting in grievous bodily harm or damage to property in public, POPIA is not a wholesale protective measure.
So says Desmond Osaretin Oriakhogba, an associate professor at the Faculty of Law at the Western Cape University (UWC).
Oriakhogba was briefed on the incident that resulted in serious injury by the 13-year-old girl in November last year at CoolRunnings in Bellville.
He was asked whether POPIA protects the young man responsible for the toboggan accident from sharing his personal details with the family park management to help facilitate claims of medical costs involved.
Nowhere to hide
Oriakhogba explained: “I see a possible delictual claim (or criminal complaint at the extreme) from the scenario and the young man cannot hide under POPIA.”
A delictual claim is a legal claim for damages caused by a wrongful act, or delict, that harms another person.
“Essentially, somebody who hurts someone else on a playground is obliged to say who they are and what their address is. If they refuse, the police could be called in and can extract the relevant personal information. It is similar to a car accident – you cannot refuse to say who you are if you caused a car accident,” he explained.
Aside from getting the police to intervene, Oriakhogba suggests, CoolRunnings management and the teenaged girl’s family can also get the information from other sources available to them.
