The Lucas 18 Foundation requests that compensation for sports accidents be equal to traffic accidents

MADRID, 2 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Lucas 18 Foundation has presented an amendment to the future Sports Law in which it asks that the compensation of the Compulsory Sports Insurance (SOD) be at least equal to that provided for the damages caused in a traffic accident.

Compensation for anatomical or functional losses caused by a sports accident is, with a minimum, 12,000 euros in the most serious cases such as tetraplegia, but the Lucas 18 Foundation claims that they have not been updated in June 1996. “With the CPI, the minimum would be approximately 60 percent more: almost 20,000 euros,” they pointed out.

For said foundation, the “most serious” thing is the contrast with what happened with the regulation of compensation for victims of traffic accidents, in the terms of the Law on civil liability and insurance in the circulation of motor vehicles, and in the Law of 2015 to reform the system for the assessment of damages caused in traffic accidents.

“There is a scale with concepts and figures that depend on the circumstances of the injured person and in particular their age. In the case of quadriplegia in a young person, the figure can exceed 1 million euros. Fifty times more, in round numbers, than the 20,000 euros (if the figure is updated) from the SOD. The contrast is scandalous against athletes, if the mandate of Article 43 of the Constitution to promote their activity is taken into account, “they add.

In addition, for the Lucas 18 Foundation, it should be taken into account that jurisprudence considers the scale of traffic legislation as a kind of ‘ius commune’ in terms of compensation for accidents, even if they have not occurred in traffic accidents.

“It could well be thought that it could also be applied to sport, were it not for the severe limitation contained in the regulations that were mentioned in the first place, which therefore not only does not protect athletes, but also severely harms them. Almost better that didn’t exist,” he says.

In the case of motor sports such as automobiles and motorcycles, the contrast is “particularly sharp” because, underlines the foundation, they are traffic accidents.