Driver personal injury cover (motor insurance)
An optional motor insurance cover that compensates the driver's own bodily injuries, which the Badinter Act protects poorly when the driver is alone involved or at fault.
The Badinter Act compensates passengers, pedestrians and cyclists injured in road accidents very broadly, but treats the driver differently: the driver's own fault can limit or exclude compensation, and if the driver is alone involved, for example when leaving the road, no other insurer answers for the harm. Compulsory liability insurance covers only damage caused to others. Driver personal injury cover fills this gap by compensating the injuries of the insured vehicle's driver, regardless of fault, often under general law rules and the heads of the Dintilhac classification. Policies, however, set an intervention threshold, for example a minimum permanent impairment rate, and a cap, sometimes low compared with the cost of a seriously injured person. For the insured, the choice of threshold and cap matters more than the mere presence of the cover, and it is a point of information the intermediary must explain.
A driver who loses control of her car alone on an icy road in January 2024 and is left with 15% impairment has no one to sue; her driver personal injury cover, which applies from 10% and is capped at 500,000 euros, compensates her under general law.
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