MORE than 16,000 uninsured drivers could be cruising Cyprus’ roads, costing law abiding road users around €5 million per year in increased premiums it emerged yesterday.
The motor insurers’ fund, which pays out to insured motorists when they are involved in a road traffic accident with an uninsured driver said that it normally handles around 500 cases per year.
The Fund’s general manager Andreas Charalambides said: “Our estimate is that 2.4 per cent of registered drivers are uninsured. With 700,000 registered drivers this is more than 16,000.”
He added: “I would say more than 50 per cent (of uninsured drivers) come from abroad, mostly from third countries such as Syria. Most probably do not care because the consequences of getting caught are next to nil.”
Charalambides explained that under EU regulations, insurers were obliged to cover motorists involved in incidents with uninsured drivers, even if they are uninsured themselves.
Around five per cent of every insurance policy holder’s premium in Cyprus goes to the fund, which is used to pay out to crash victims.
The fund then has the task of recovering the funds from the uninsured party but in practice this rarely happens. “We have the right to recover the funds but we never find anything.”
The reason for this is that many cars are re-sold several times without being registered, making it practically impossible to locate the owner.
According to police’s road traffic statistics office, 2,360 uninsured drivers have been reported to the courts this year: broadly in line with last year’s total, when 2,408 were reported.
But while the number of caught individuals and payouts by the fund has remained steady, police are reportedly seeing an upward trend in the number of crashes in which drivers flee the scene of the accident on foot.
Asked how Cyprus compares to the rest of Europe, he said that the problem was equally serious in other countries.
However, they were tackling the problem more successfully than in Cyprus where the minimal fines and short term suspension of licences – if the culprit even has one.
“The problem is serious in other countries, but they have serious penalties. For example when a driver is caught uninsured in the UK, their car is confiscated. In Nordic countries the penalties are so high that nobody considers driving without insurance.”
The fund has written to the government to suggest stronger measures, such as police checks and higher penalties.
The difference in the number cases reported to the courts by police and crashes handled by the insurers’ fund suggests that most caught drivers are not present at crash sites.
This indicates the potential for police checks, however until the cost is passed onto the uninsured by the courts, law abiding policy holders will continue to insure illegal drivers.
