Insurance had to provide compensation to drivers who got accident when drunk
The German Federal Court has ruled that drivers who got accident when drunk couldn’t expect their insurers would give compensation but they were rightfully make a claim. According to the current law, a reduction of insurance payment is only possible in the case of gross negligence but not when the insured person was drunk because they could be classified as non compos mentis.
This week, the Federal Court would decide on a case, which happened in a 22-year-old man who smashed his own car and crashed a lamppost on the way home from a rock concert. After the accident had happened more than an hour, he was measured as having 0.27 percent alcohol in his blood, so his insurer refused to pay €6,400 to repair damage to his car.
The result of court’s ruling was an insurer could decide to pay everything when drivers were said to be incapable of driving after 0.11 percent alcohol in his blood. Nevertheless, this thing did not apply if the person is non compos mentis.
The Federal Court argued that the driver might be had made a decision about whether to continue drinking and then drive or not. The Federal Court referred the case back to the Higher Regional Court in Dresden because this had not been considered in the previous hearings.
