Motor insurers vote to share risk for terrorism following 2017 London car and van attacks in Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park | City A.M.
Motor insurers have today confirmed plans to pool risk for terrorist attacks involving vehicles after London was hit with three fatal incidents in 2017.
Members of the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB), which is an industry body that acts to compensate the victims of uninsured drivers, have voted to place responsibility for compensating victims of vehicle-related terrorist attacks on the MIB rather than individual insurers.
Read more: Terrorists present UK with “far more complex and dangerous” threat in 2018
In 2017 there were three deadly attacks in London that used vehicles to kill and injure pedestrians.
In March 2017 an Islamist terrorist killed five people and injured nearly 50 after driving his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police officer outside Parliament.
This was followed in June by the London Bridge attack during which three Islamist terrorists killed eight people and injured close to 50 after ramming victims with their van and going on a knife rampage before being shot dead by armed police.
Later the same month an attacker drove his van into pedestrians near the Finsbuy Park Mosque, targeting Muslims in a “revenge attack” for the previous incidents, leaving one person dead and ten people injured.
Read more: May pays tributes to London Bridge attack victims on first anniversary
Steve Maddock, chairman of MIB and chief operating officer at Direct Line Group said, “The motor insurance market has clearly signalled that it was right to consider if individual insurers or the market as a whole carry the risks associated with motor claims arising from terrorist attacks. The outcome of the vote indicates strong support to mutualise the risk and enable MIB to act in the event there are further terrorist activities.”
More than 75 per cent of motor insurers agreed to the change following a ballot which closed on 19 July.
Terrorist claims involving vehicles that happen after 1 January 2019 will be covered by the MIB.
Dominic Clayden, Chief Executive at MIB said: “Those who are innocently caught up in events where terrorists drive vehicles into people to injure and kill, can rely on MIB to pay and handle their motor related claims for these terrible events.”