Information prepared by Inese Lukaševska, PR Advisor of the MIBL.
According to information available to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Latvia (MIBL), Latvian citizens travelling abroad for business or leisure purposes commit a number of significant errors that limit their participation in the road traffic. The most common errors: MTPL insurance policy is left at home, policy validity term is expired, MTPL insurance policy is purchased after the accident; travellers also fail to comply with local laws, believing that if the vehicle is registered in
"In cases where a vehicle registered in Latvia has been damaged in the result of a road traffic accident, which happened in the country, which is a member country of the Green Card (GC) system but not a country of the European Economic Area (EEA) (e.g., Russia, Belarus, Ukraine) a MTPL insurance claim for payment of compensation must be submitted according the rules / laws and regulations of this country and according to the procedure of the Internal Regulations of the GC System, namely: a MTPL insurance claim may be filed only in the country where the traffic accident occurred. Regulatory acts of the GC System do not provide for submission of a claim in
What to do if you have suffered damage in the result of a traffic accident
As shown by the experience of the MIBL, most problems occur to residents of
"If a Latvian driver has been involved in a road traffic accident abroad, he/she must primarily comply with the laws of this particular country concerning documentation of traffic accidents and compensation claims. Special attention should be paid to the fact that in countries outside the European Economic Area these procedures can vary widely and the time limits for filing a claim may be very short. For example, in
What to do if you are the part that has caused a traffic accident
If a Latvian resident has caused a traffic accident, the most common error is that this accident is not reported in good time to his/her MTPL insurer. The MTPL insurance law provides that the person who has caused a traffic accident must report this accident to his/her insurer, and after that the insurer may also request additional information, clarification of the circumstances of the traffic accident, and require presentation of the damaged car. Failure to provide information may lead to a situation where all of the losses caused to the victim should be reimbursed by the person who caused the accident himself/herself, despite of an existing valid policy.
"It is important to always keep in mind the insurance contract expiry date, because participation in the road traffic with an uninsured vehicle can cause severe losses to the driver (the owner). In the event when an uninsured vehicle has caused a traffic accident in foreign countries, the driver (the owner) of this vehicle must take into account that he/she would have to pay all the damages at a later time; in addition. the average amount of damages in the EEA countries is four times higher than in
Figures illustrating road traffic accidents occurred in foreign countries
Based on the statistics compiled by the MIBL, in three months of 2011, 744 decisions have been made regarding road traffic accidents (RTA) that have taken place in foreign countries, for the total compensation amount of LVL 1,339,428, representing 20.4% of the total amount of claims paid. If compared with the first quarter of 2010, the number of foreign-registered traffic accidents has decreased by 10.3%. Countries, in which the highest number of claims was registered, are
More information about validity of insurance contracts issued in
Additional information:
ph. nr.: +371 25809161
e-mail: inese(a)olsen.lv