Rising Drunk Driving Amid COVID-19... Insurers on Edge

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] Around 6 a.m. on the 19th, a man in his 20s driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.085%, which is at the license cancellation level, collided repeatedly with vehicles ahead on the Busan Dongseo Overpass. On the 15th, a woman in her 50s driving a Mercedes-Benz sedan in Jung-gu, Daejeon, crossed the center line and hit an SUV coming from the opposite direction. According to police investigations, the driver was in a state of severe intoxication at the license cancellation level at the time of the accident.

As drunk driving accidents have sharply increased with the arrival of spring, property and casualty insurers are on high alert. There are concerns that this could act as a negative factor, raising automobile insurance loss ratios again, which had improved due to social distancing measures following the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

According to the insurance industry on the 20th, 4,101 drunk driving traffic accidents occurred from January to March, a 24.4% increase compared to the same period last year (3,296 cases). The number of deaths also rose by 6.8% (from 74 to 79) compared to the previous year.

This is attributed to the fact that checkpoint-style drunk driving crackdowns, which require contact with drivers, were virtually suspended due to COVID-19. The concern that drunk driving accidents would increase due to lax enforcement has become a reality.

In particular, spring is the season with the highest incidence of drunk driving among the four seasons. Insurance payouts for drunk driving accident compensation are highest in spring.

Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance analyzed traffic accidents from January to December 2018 and found that out of 883,475 total traffic accident reports, 10,910 were drunk driving accidents.

Spring accounted for the highest number of drunk driving accidents with 3,020 cases (27.7%). Winter had the fewest with 2,353 cases (21.6%). Of the 46.8 billion KRW paid out for drunk driving accident insurance claims, 14 billion KRW was paid in spring alone. This accounts for nearly 30.0% of the total insurance payouts. On average, 4.64 million KRW was paid per drunk driving accident.

Within the property and casualty insurance industry, there are calls to promptly implement an increase in the drunk driving deductible. The government’s plan to raise the maximum drunk driving deductible by up to 15 million KRW is scheduled to take effect in October. Until then, drunk driving offenders are only required to pay up to 4 million KRW.

An industry official stated, "Although the Yoon Chang-ho Act strengthened criminal penalties for drunk driving, the increase in the deductible, which is a civil liability, being applied only from October seems delayed," adding, "We are closely monitoring whether this will negatively affect automobile insurance loss ratios."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.