New drive to identify uninsured vehicles
The Finance Ministry is pondering a legal clause that will identify uninsured vehicles in real time and change the system of fines imposed on their owners.
Estimates by insurance companies put the number of uninsured vehicles at about 700,000, which constitutes a real threat to road safety as according to sector representatives they are the most common cause of hit-and-run road incidents.
The Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies (EAEE) has raised this issue with Minister Christos Staikouras, aiming at improving both the procedure to locate uninsured vehicles and the process for imposing fines.
It appears that many drivers insure their vehicle for one, two or three months each time they are threatened with a fine, before letting it lapse again. Therefore the 2012 law providing for strict fines remains a dead letter.