The Polish Motor Insurers Bureau (PBUK) has counted over 75,200 motor accidents abroad caused by vehicles with Polish registration in 2018. This is over 200 accidents abroad every day in 2018.
The number increased by almost 10,000 accidents (15%) compared to 2017. PBUK estimates that insurance companies paid more than PLN 1.3 billion for the damages caused by insured Poles outside Poland. The majority of these accidents happened in: Germany (51.7% share), France (6.9%), Italy (6.8%) and UK (6.3%).
„In recent years, there has been a gradual increase in the number of events abroad. It is an outcome of intense migration, the inability to adapt to different traffic rules on foreign roads, as well as the aptitude drivers. This translates into the successively increasing financial burden on the Polish insurance market for damages caused outside Poland by drivers of vehicles carrying national number plates”, Mariusz Wichtowski, President of PBUK commented.
The number of accidents caused by uninsured Polish vehicles increased as well, from 415 cases in 2017 to 493 cases in 2018 (+18.8%), the highest number in the past 8 years. PBUK paid PLN 9 million from its own funds for uninsured cases in 2018, noticeably less than PLN 12 million in 2017 (-26.9%).
„The feeling of impunity that grows among our motorists is the fact that more and more of them take to such irresponsible behavior as traveling on foreign roads without third-party liability insurance. If they cause an accident abroad without a valid insurance policy, they will suffer all the financial consequences. They will have to pay for the repairs of the damaged property, for the treatment and rehabilitation of injured people, and sometimes even for their continued medical care”, Wichtowski added.
