According to the BBC, Mr Lukasz Borowski was a passenger in a work colleague’s car when the driver crashed in to a ditch in Cambridgeshire.
The sum, awarded at Newcastle High court, will pay for Mr Borowski’s long term care. He suffered damage to his spinal cord, a fractured spine and also suffered from brain damage as a result of the road traffic accident. According to Mr Borowski’s lawyer the settlement value was in fact nearly £10.5 million, however, Mr Borowski accepted a 20% reduction in damages because he was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident.
The driver of the vehicle in which Mr Borowski was injured did not have insurance and this meant that the compensation package had to be agreed with the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (or MIB).
The MIB act to compensate victims of negligent uninsured or untraceable drivers. They are funded through contributory payments from insurers from policy premiums and this is a perfect example of why they are such a necessary organisation. If it were not for the MIB, it is very unlikely that the driver of the vehicle in which he was a passenger could have afforded to pay the compensation that Mr Borowski required for his injuries, and he would have only received minimal, if any, compensation from the driver directly.
This serves to highlight the importance of having car insurance in place. As more claims are being made through the MIB this will result in the cost of payouts such as this one being passed on to customers through higher premiums. According to MIB statistics about 900,000 people under the age of 30 are currently driving without insurance and if premiums continue to rise then we can expect this figure to increase further. Amongst the consequences for driving without insurance are that your vehicle can be seized by police, you can be given 6 penalty points on your licence and a £200 penalty.