[Animals] The growing problem of animals on the road

[-Ace Ϟ ™]

 

Collisions with boars, deer or dogs have an increasing weight in claims, while the law makes claims difficult.

 

Wild animals are approaching the towns, appearing on the asphalt and causing many more car accidents than before. In the previous five years, the number of mishaps has multiplied by five and its weight in the global claims has increased by 71%.

A report by Línea Directa Aseguradora compiled data from the last five years and attributes the changes, to a large extent, to the abandonment of rural areas, the lack of po[CENSORED]tion control of some game species and the effect of the pandemic.

Wild boar, roe deer, deer and foxes, among other species, have lost their fear of venturing into urban areas.

 

Between 2017 and 2021, this company has registered 11,400 incidents with animals among its clients. They are serious, complex and very common claims in some areas: in Soria, they represent 9% of the insurance claims. The law also makes it difficult for drivers to make claims.

Accidents against animals: what are they like?
Due to the speed at which the vehicles circulate and the corpulence of some animals, the abuses are violent and dangerous. Dodge maneuvers also cause serious casualties.

The Direct Line report detects that accidents occur above all at night (61%), in rural areas, on weekends and, more frequently, in autumn (34%). The most common involved are wild boars and dogs.

 

As for the type of road, two out of three accidents happen on conventional roads (64%), but in the last five years they have tripled in urban areas, which register 22% of cases.

Expensive and serious claims
The increase in these claims is a problem for insurers, since the average cost of compensation for personal injury has increased by 104% between 2017 and 2021.

In the same period, the cost increase in common traffic accidents was 13.6%. Vehicle repairs are also more expensive (2.4 times more, according to calculations by Línea Directa).

 

When an accident occurs with animals, wild or domestic, the procedures are 38% slower. And claiming, according to the authors of the report, is "mission impossible." The change came about eight years ago, when a legal change shifted responsibility for these accidents to the driver.

The motorist can claim the expenses from the preserve or the farm, for example, if the blow is due to "a collective action of big game hunting on the same day or twelve hours before the blow". There is also a loophole for the vehicle owner if the road is not properly fenced or marked.

 

Since the change of the norm, only 6% of the damages caused by animals are compensated by their owners, compared to 43% registered by claims prior to 2014: seven times less.

According to the report by Línea Directa, Castilla-La Mancha and the Community of Madrid are the communities where fewer claims prosper. On the opposite side, La Rioja and Navarra are the territories with the highest proportion of compensation.

If the accident happens against a domestic animal, the Civil Code indicates its owners as responsible. However, almost as a rule, the dogs that wander around, invade the road and die run over, lived abandoned and without identification. Only specific coverage frees motorists from complications. Four out of ten owners have it.

 

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