The cheapest liability insurance can backfire on drivers due to low insurance limits in accidents with serious health consequences.
“Every year, we deal with several insurance events where the total damage exceeds 35 million crowns, which is the basic limit in liability insurance. We try to warn clients about this and recommend that they choose higher limits, specifically 100 million crowns for property damage and 100 million for health damage,” said Milan Káňa, a spokesperson for Kooperativa.
“Whether you have a limit of 35 million crowns or 70 million crowns for a vehicle with a capacity of 1200 cm3, the difference in insurance price is only a few hundred crowns per year,” said Marian Skrip, a Kooperativa specialist.
Most people only look at the price
For many drivers, however, a hundred crowns in insurance price are crucial. When assessing liability insurance, the price is still the primary criterion for our drivers. Only a quarter of them is interested in the actual extent of coverage and the offer of assistance services. This emerged from a survey of the behavior of three thousand clients, which was conducted by the Czech digital financial advisory company FinGo.cz.
A quarter (29 percent) of clients are interested in what additional insurance they can choose and what specific services they contain.
“Lower limits may lower the final price of the insurance, but in a major accident, the limit may not be sufficient to compensate for the damage,” confirmed Irena Jakobová from FinGo.cz.
In other words, a person can save hundreds of crowns a year compared to an offer with higher limits. Still, when they cause a severe injury, they may have to pay compensation for life because the cheap insurance contains a low coverage limit.
People try to save even on car insurance
The amounts paid out from the insurance of the culprits of traffic accidents as compensation for the consequences of health damage to victims are increasing. Last year, the average salary reached 998 thousand crowns, 71 thousand more than in 2021, according to Vindicia, a company specializing in compensation recovery.
“It includes pain, nursing, compensation for lost wages, and reduced employability. That is usually the highest amount,” said Tomáš Beck from Vindicia.
For example, a young female motorcyclist who did not give priority to a driver of a passenger car received 1.8 million. The woman was seriously injured, lost two months of memories and several teeth, and partly lost the sensation in her hands. She suffers from psychological problems and is afraid to get into a car, let alone a motorcycle. Although the culprit tried to blame the injured party, the assessment of his guilt proved otherwise.