Madam, - Last May I was involved in a minor accident on the M50, when I hit the bumper of the jeep in front of me while changing lanes at a speed of approximately 2 m.p.h. Although the damage done to the jeep was hardly noticeable, the garage to which its owner brought it estimated the cost of repairing it at €890.
I have just received a letter from the AA quoting me a figure of €1,256 to renew my motor insurance this year, compared with €600 last year. This increase of almost 100 per cent is, of course, due to the accident in May. The fact that the previous 17 years were claim-free is, apparently, irrelevant.
No doubt my renewal premium will be around €1,000 next year, and so on for several years, until it eventually falls back to its 2002 level. There is something rotten with an industry where the cumulative cost to the motorist over successive years of paying the increased premiums resulting from a claim is greater than the cost to the insurance company of settling that claim in the first place.
The sooner Dorothea Dowling's recommendations on motor insurance are acted upon, the better. Is it any wonder that an estimated one in five cars on our roads are uninsured?
Which is the greater crime: driving an uninsured car, or ripping off an entire class of consumers? - Yours, etc.,
JOE PATTON, Hillcrest Walk, Lucan, Co Dublin.