MORE THAN 171,000 automobiles in Slovakia, about 7 percent of the estimated total number of cars, may not have compulsory liability insurance as required by law. The Slovak Insurers' Bureau reported that there were 2.27 million cars with compulsory insurance coverage at the end of 2011, but the Interior Ministry reported that there were more than 2.44 million cars in the country at that time, the SITA newswire wrote in late February.
If a car without compulsory liability insurance causes injuries or other kinds of damage, the losses are covered from an insurance guarantee fund managed by the Slovak Insurers’ Bureau. The bureau reported that it handles thousands of such cases each year.
The proportion of cars operating in Slovakia that are not covered by non-compulsory accident insurance is even higher, with less than one-third of car owners purchasing this kind of insurance. Insurance companies say that if auto leasing companies did not insist that drivers purchase this accident insurance, the number of vehicles without it would be even higher.
