A record compensation for a road crash victim

Macif has been convicted by the high court justice in Niort (west of France) to pay approximately 7.6 million EUR (9.8 million USD) following a road crash in December 2000. Aged 35 at the time of accident, the victim hit, head-on, a car driving in the opposite direction on a highway.

Seriously handicapped, the victim, a corporate executive, attacked the insurer of the guilty driver. Macif, then, proposed an indemnification of 450 000 EUR (582 732 USD). The Niort tribunal deemed the sums incommensurate with future-lost earnings.