Thousands of vehicles believed to be plying Malaysian roads without valid motor insurance – VTAREC

All motorists should know that motor insurance is compulsory for all vehicles that ply the roads, but it seems that not everyone is driving with such cover, says the Vehicle Theft and Accident Reduction Council of Malaysia (VTAREC).

The council believes that tens of thousands of vehicles are operating without insurance, basing its projection from a study it conducted, The Star reports. According to VTAREC coordinator Mas Tina Abdul Hamid, a study of 740,000 cases of road accidents in 2023 revealed that insurance claims for damages were only filed for 40% of the cases.

“While police reports were lodged by the parties involved in the accidents, not all the cases saw insurance claims being filed. We found that insurance claims were only made for 299,000 accident cases. We believe this is likely because certain vehicle owners did not make an insurance claim as they did not possess motor insurance,” she said.

However, she added that the lower rate of insurance claims could also be due to motorists choosing not to make a claim for minor repairs, bearing the repair costs themselves in order to preserve their no-claims discount.

She said that in 2024, the vehicle insurance industry recorded 266,716 accident claims, which was a 11% decline compared with 299,657 cases in 2023. Of these, 86% of the claims made last year involved cars, with about 5% for motorcycles and 8% for commercial vehicles.

She stressed on the importance of having valid motor insurance. “Motor insurance does not only cover the damage to our vehicles but most importantly provides compensation for victims who suffer injuries, or the next of kin of those killed in the event of an accident,” she said.

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