From March 1 to July 31 this year, the Insurance Guarantee Fund (UFG) identified over 81,000 people without valid civil liability insurance. The information from the UFG shows that the reason for driving without third party liability insurance was not due to financial problems. Polish drivers indicate the ongoing pandemic and the inability to contact the agent as the reason. The Polish Insurance Association (PIU) reminds us that the pandemic does not affect the ease of concluding a compulsory insurance contract and driving without civil liability is associated with serious financial consequences.

Throughout 2019, UFG issued approx. 127,000 calls for a fee for the lack of motor third party liability. This year, in just seven months from the outbreak of the pandemic, the number of vehicle owners who have had a break in their insurance has already exceeded 100,000. In two out of three cases, Polish drivers did not have the policy for more than two weeks.

“Every third uninsured person identified by the Fund is aged 32-43. It is hard to believe in the digital exclusion of this group of people, and yet the validity of the policy can be easily checked without leaving home. It has also been possible to buy a new policy for many years over the phone or the Internet. It can be assumed that some drivers want, citing the pandemic, to ‘save’ on obligatory civil liability insurance. And this poses a serious risk and it is not about the fees that the Fund has to impose in accordance with the law for the lack of a valid policy,” Damian Ziąber, UFG spokesman, commented.

The amount of the third-party liability premium is approximately PLN 550 per year, and it can be divided into installments. The costs of an uninsured driver who causes a collision or accident may reach several hundred thousand, and even exceed PLN 1 million if there were injured or killed. At the moment, there are two record cases in UFG, in which uninsured drivers caused damages worth approximately PLN 1.4 million each.

(WBJ)