Number of uninsured cars is soaring
The financial crisis has seen the number of uninsured vehicles soar, as market estimates suggest that there are about half a million cars on the road that have been left without insurance in the last few months, in addition to those that were without insurance from before.
Given that there is no record of non-insured vehicles, the car insurance industry can only guess that the figure at the moment stands somewhere around 1-1.5 million cars without insurance.
The first-quarter data by the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies showed an 8.4 percent drop year-on-year, which provides a good enough yardstick for an estimate.
The uninsured cars on the road not only make the insurance sector shrink, but can also create a serious problem to other motorists or even pedestrians if involved in accidents. Sector professionals suggest that the only way to ascertain the real figure of uninsured cars is for the authorities to perform a cross-check with Transport Ministry registers, which has not been done yet.
