Muscat: Road accidents in Oman cost local insurance firms 100 million riyals (Dh950.09 million) in 2016, according to official figures released by the Capital Market Authority.
Many insurance companies have reported a decrease in profits over the last four years due to the “high cost of accident pay-outs”.
The insurance payout covers damage to property such as lamp poles, pavements, road dividers, private homes, and shops, as well as vehicles.
The compensation also covers medical treatment and payouts to deceased victims’ families.
The head of one insurance company who didn’t want to be identified, said that his company’s net-profit had decreased by 7 per cent in 2016, due to the high cost of road payouts.
“I blame the reckless drivers who don’t abide by the traffic rules,” he said.
“The next three years are going to be difficult. Only big insurance companies will make it through,” said an employee at a local insurance company who asked not to be named.
Last month, Muscat Primary Court ordered an insurance company to pay 24,000 riyals in compensation to an Omani man who was left disabled after suffering serious injuries in a car crash last December.
In 2016, The Royal Oman Police (ROP), handed out more than four million violation tickets, estimated up to 9 million riyals.
An official at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, told Gulf News that the government spent more than 400 million riyals in the last three years on road improvements in order to reduce road accidents.
As many as 692 people were killed in road accidents in 2016, compared to 975 in 2015, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Speeding and wrong overtaking have been cited as the main causes of road accidents in the country.
Oman has the second-highest number of road accidents in the Gulf region, after Saudi Arabia.
