JEDDAH, 28 December 2002 — A Saudi insurance expert has pointed out flaws in the recently introduced mandatory insurance on driving license, Al-Watan reported yesterday.
Dismissing the general impression that mandatory insurance on driving license is the panacea for all the financial problems related to motor accidents Eid ibn Abdullah Al-Nasser, an expert in insurance and risk management, said: “The license insurance provides cover only if the driver is at the wheel when the accident occurs. It does not give the required coverage in the event of a car, for example, parked on top of a hill or at some wrong place rolling down causing damage to others’ properties,” Al-Nasser said.
The expert also pointed out that in a system of insurance in which the vehicle is insured both the driver and vehicle are covered.
He also holds that the driving license insurance is much more expensive than vehicle insurance. He explained this point by citing the example of a family with five adult men using a single car. Every one of the five has to get insured under the new system. On the other hand, if the insurance is on the car they would need only one policy. In other words, the family has to spend five times as much in the new system. Or in the case of companies in which a vehicle would be used by different drivers, the insurance coverage has to be made out for each one of them.
The new system also increases the workload of traffic officials as each vehicle has to be stopped to inspect if the driver has insurance coverage. If the insurance were on the vehicle, the traffic officials could demand the sticking of insurance stickers of varying colors on the front glass so that the officials could quickly check them and, thus, save time for themselves and the public. The colors of the stickers would denote the year and month of insurance.
