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Traffic accidents – Road Traffic Code

Iason Skouzos - TaxLaw > Practice Areas > Traffic accidents – Road Traffic Code

Road traffic accidents are, unfortunately, very frequent in Greece, with lots of the occurrences resulting in the death of the persons involved. The fact that Greece comes third among the 28 member states of the EU in deaths from road traffic accidents, with nearly 700 traffic accident-related deaths per year, is indicative of the seriousness of the problem. The unpleasant consequences of road traffic accidents are diverse, including material damage, personal injury, health damage, health care expenditures and frequently the loss of life, accompanied by the pain suffered by the relatives of the deceased. At the same time, these consequences are also multidimensional, due to the fact that in most cases there is a large number of people affected by the accident, not apparent at first glance, such as those entitled to maintenance from the deceased while, in other cases, the victim suffers for a long period or his whole life because of the incident, needing extensive medical and psychological support, especially when the accident results in a handicap.

This section includes articles in relation to the law of compensation and monetary satisfaction, in its specific implementation in the case of road traffic accidents.

The legislator, having taken all the above into consideration, has established a legislative framework that targets at the reimbursement of the victim and his relatives, based on the idea of compensation and monetary satisfaction. The term “compensation” refers to the provision to the victim of a monetary sum which covers the extent of the damages sustained due to the accident that can be measured in money, such as material damage and health care expenditures, while “monetary satisfaction” means the provision of money to the victim as a means of relieving the pain caused by the incident. This kind of pain, such as the psychological pain and suffering incurred to the victim as a result of the accident (“non-material damage”) or the pain suffered by the relatives of the deceased person in case of a lethal road traffic accident (“psychological distress”) can never of course be fully treated through such a monetary provision, but the logic behind the law is that it might be soothed this way.

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