The Ministry of Transport's proposals to reduce speed on Latvian roads may further help reduce the cost of compulsory third party liability insurance (OSTA), Uldis Dzintars, a board member of the PZU insurance company Balta, told LETA. He noted that it is the number of road accidents that influences the OSTA market. The total number of road accidents in our country as a whole is decreasing, and this could have been a reason for rejoicing if June had not brought a series of serious accidents, Dzintars noted. According to data collected by the Highway Safety Department (CSDD), road accidents claimed 17 lives in June this year alone. At the same time, in the first half of 2024, compared to the same period, the number of accidents decreased by 7%. The reduction in the number of road accidents has a positive effect on OSTA clients, since insurers have to pay less insurance compensation, and this generally compensates for the increase in inflation in auto repair shops, a company representative noted. Already now, comparing the three Baltic countries, within the PZU group in Latvia the average OSTA price for individuals is the lowest. Thus, in Estonia, the OSTA policy in the first six months of this year was 20% more expensive than in Latvia. In Lithuania, the OSTA policy cost clients 40% more than in our country. Dzintars adds that the price of OSTA is influenced by various factors – from the total number of accidents in each country to the age of the vehicle fleet. “The Ministry of Transport’s proposals to reduce speed on roads are aimed primarily at reducing the number of deaths and injuries. But they can also contribute to an overall reduction in the number of accidents and indirectly have a positive impact on the calculation of the OST price for customers,” Dzintars said. Earlier it was reported that Transport Minister Kaspars Briskens hopes to receive support from Sejm deputies on the proposal to impose fines for speeding from the first kilometer. In an interview with LETA, the minister recalled that the proposal to impose fines from the first kilometer had already been rejected, just as the proposal to impose fines from the fifth kilometer was then rejected. While speed is not always the sole or primary factor in a crash, it always makes the impact of a crash worse, Brischkens said.
