Reforming Compulsory Automobile Insurance in Thai Law: A Case Study of Problems Regarding Compensating Victims in Car Accident in Criminal Cases

Abstract

Nowadays, Thailand is one of the countries that has the highest number of car accidents in the world. Car Accident is one of the social problems that brings high numbers of victims, who lost their life and property in every day. To relief and remedy this problem, the Motor Vehicle Accident Victims Act B.E. 2535 (1992) was legislated and mandated as the compulsory automobile insurance in Thailand. Nevertheless, from the study, it can be seen that the Motor Vehicle Accident Victims Act B.E. 2535 (1992) of Thailand still has some problems as follows; the compulsory automobile insurance does not cover the amount of the actual damages, the compulsory automobile insurance does not cover to property of third parties and in practice, many cars are not insured with the compulsory automobile insurance. Moreover, in practice, the judge of a criminal court will use civil compensation as the main reason to determine the penalty, which will be imposed on the accused in the case of a car accident that causes injury and death. In case that the accused fails to properly remedy the victim, the judges often make the decision to choose a strong penalty like an imprisonment for the accused as a mean to compensate the victim. However, the imposing of retribution theory is not suitable for this case because this theory should be imposed on intentional offences. Therefore, the imposing of retribution theory in car accident cases may cause other social problems.

The result of the study has shown that comparing the compulsory automobile insurance in various developed countries with Thailand, the compulsory automobile insurance in other developed countries contain a higher level of protection than Thailand.

This study, therefore, recommends the development and improvement of laws related to the compulsory automobile insurance in Thailand by increasing the amount of money to be sufficient for the actual damage and increasing the coverage to the third party’s property. Moreover, Thailand should enforce a strict enforcement of existing laws in order to prevent the evasion of compulsory car insurance as well.