Thousands of drivers in Israel who drive without compulsory insurance save thousands of shekels over the years, but for those who get into an accident, it's the beginning of a total nightmare.
It can be the person behind you at the traffic light, or the one who turned without indicating or the one who didn't stop for a pedestrian. If you get into an accident with someone who doesn't have compulsory insurance, you aren't just a health problem.
For cases like this, Israel has a foundation for people who are hurt in accidents that is meant to ensure compensation for bodily harm when there's no insurance to supply it.
The foundation is meant to be simple – compensation for the person who got hurt and continued contact between the foundation and the offending driver.
19-year-old Israeli is still waiting for compensation
Two years after a car accident in which a 17-year-old got hurt by an uninsured driver, he's still waiting for compensation from the driver through the foundation, which he filed for with the help of lawyer Kital Bieber-Hiakan.
In the accident, which was caught on security camera, the teenager could be seen walking on a dimly lit narrow street without sidewalks when a commercial vehicle comes speeding through and hits him.
The young man was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a severe head injury, and he was put into a medically-induced coma. What followed was a long rehabilitation process during which he complained of pain, dizziness, vomiting, instability, weakness and impaired vision.
Even now, two years later, he is still going in for regular checkups and treatments and needs psychiatric medication and painkillers.
Because of the long rehabilitation process, the boy finished high school with only a partial bagrut certificate and was unable to continue with his job or hold on to other jobs he tried. These days, he's a driver for a construction company, but he requires many breaks while working.
The compensation he filed for is up to NIS 2.5 million, which is the maximum amount that can be asked for in this type of lawsuit. If the court rules that he deserves compensation, the foundation will then sue the offending driver to get back the money it had to pay out.
The boy shouldn't count on receiving the amount he's asking for, however. In a similar case in May, the court decided on a compensation of only NIS 50,000.