Alarming data: shared cars are involved in accidents significantly more often than other vehicles

Such a video, according to witnesses, was captured recently near Ulbroka. The rental car crashed, the driver ran away. In the comments, there is concern that similar views have been seen more and more recently.

Too many without a license and under the influence of drugs sit in front of these cars, on the road they are very wary of fast rental cars.

Scary scenes after accidents have been seen on social media more than once, when shared rental cars have been smashed, but the culprits have run away. As it turns out, honest drivers are also forced to pay for the damage caused.

Car insurers say that shared rental companies are a special category, for which the insurance sums have been substantially raised after many accidents, but for the consequences caused by irresponsible drivers, pain money is also “squeezed” from the common OCTA fund.

Agris Daukšte

Representative of the Latvian Vehicle Insurers Office

“Rental vehicles are now, on average, involved in accidents five times more often than light vehicles owned by legal entities. Last year, there were a total of around 300 accidents involving a rental vehicle. The largest rewards have been in the amount of several tens and even hundreds of thousands of euros.”

The police do not collect separate statistics on how many violations have been committed directly with rental cars, nor on how many accidents they are involved in.

The State Police states that in the statistics, law enforcement officers do not separate road traffic accidents, as well as violations, leaving the scene of a road traffic accident directly with rental cars. The police cannot claim that this should be observed as a trend.

In the opinion of the insurers, the stone is in the field of the merchants themselves, who offer car rental services. Perhaps the age limit should be raised, or some other mechanisms should be devised to weed out potentially irresponsible and dangerous drivers.

If a rental customer causes an accident and causes damage, the company tries to recover the amount of the damage from the culprit, but this can often turn into a very long and complicated process involving debt collectors and the courts. In addition, accidents tend to be caused by twenty-year-olds who have recently obtained their license, from whom nothing can really be recovered.

According to Agris Daukšte, a representative of the Latvian Vehicle Insurer’s Office, a car accident involving “Tesla” was a vivid example. “Tesla” had damaged very expensive road construction equipment, which is the biggest reported accident to date. The amount to be recovered reaches over 100,000 euros.

A spokesperson from car-sharing leader Bolt Drive was not available for an in-person interview on Monday, May 6.

The Ministry of Transport explains that it does not regulate the rules for the use of shared vehicles. Local governments can do this on their own initiative.

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