The Central Insurance company of Iran has announced new vehicle insurance regulations through which the drivers’ behavior will have a direct impact on their car insurance rates, said CII’s president.
“Based on the new rules, drivers with major traffic offenses will have to pay higher insurance fees,” Abdolnaser Hemmati was quoted by ISNA as saying.
The rule comes as a warning to motorists to be more careful of their pockets when driving recklessly and posing grave risks to others. “Those with negative penalty points will face 1-30% increase in fees when buying car insurance policy,” he said.
The “penalty point system” was introduced by the Traffic Police in 2011 as a deterrent for lawless driving and dangerous traffic behavior.
Under the system, each traffic violation invites a number of negative points. For instance, dangerous speeding means 10 minuses.
If the total points on a driver’s record equal or exceed 30, the court suspends the driving license for three months. If a driver gets more than 25 negative points the second time the license is suspended for six months. If he/she commits another transgression with 20 negative points, they are banned from driving for one year.
Social experts and lawful drivers are of the strong opinion that these rules are still very lenient and should be revised to make unruly drivers understand that laws “are not made to be broken.” Many people want the authorities to rewrite the law against dangerous and lawless drivers by not only hitting them in the pocket but by depriving them of sitting behind the wheel forever.
Hemmati says his firm is planning to offer “safe-driving courses” in collaboration with the Traffic Police, “Those attending the classes will receive 5-10% discount on their car insurance premium.”
Road accidents in Iran kill an estimated 17,000 people and injure 350,000 every year.
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