Easter drunk driving: not only will you lose your license, but also your insurance

According to preliminary data from the Central Statistical Office, drunk driving remains a serious problem: in 2025, drunk drivers caused 848 traffic accidents resulting in personal injury. More than two-thirds of these accidents were caused by cars, in the remaining cases the perpetrator was mainly a motorcycle or bicycle.

In the case of drunk driving, the law stipulates that the perpetrator may be banned from driving for several years, and a refresher course is also a condition for regaining the driver’s license. Even imprisonment can be imposed for causing an accident involving personal injury. In addition, another serious consequence of drunk driving is that if an accident caused in this state results in either personal injury or only property damage, the drunk driver cannot count on insurance compensation.

No matter how good the comprehensive insurance may be for the drunk driver’s vehicle, insurance conditions almost always exclude compensation above a blood alcohol level of 0.8 parts per thousand. Compulsory insurance (KGFB) compensates innocent victims, but the insurer also recovers this amount from the tortfeasor afterwards. (According to the law, the insurer can reclaim the compensation paid up to HUF 5 million from the driver if the car was driven under the influence of alcohol or a substance that adversely affects driving ability.)

The situation is even more serious if the drunken vehicle was not insured for the KGFB. In this case, the compensation account managed by the Hungarian Insurers Association provides compensation to the innocent party, and then recovers this amount in full from the owner of the uninsured car.

“Knowing the possible consequences, the advice is clear: leave the car in the parking lot after a drink. A taxi for a few thousand forints or a call to a driver service can save you from spending millions of forints, or in worse cases, from a lifetime of remorse” – warns Dr. Gábor Kozma, CEO of Insura.hu.

When can you get in a car after drinking alcohol?

A frequently asked question is how long you have to wait after drinking alcohol before you can safely get behind the wheel? Although the breakdown of alcohol is a structural issue that depends on gender, body weight, age, the condition of the liver and other organs, and the amount of alcohol consumed, some rules of thumb can be established.

Blood alcohol levels typically peak 60-90 minutes after drinking, and the liver then begins to process most of it – the rest of the alcohol is eliminated through the lungs and skin, which is why we smell alcohol when someone has been drinking. The half-life of alcohol is approximately 5 hours, so it takes this long for the blood alcohol level to drop by half – which suggests that it takes a long time for it to completely leave the body.

In general, a breathalyzer can detect alcohol for a longer period of time than a blood test – the breathalyzer can detect alcohol up to 24 hours after drinking, while alcohol can be detected in blood for approximately 12 hours.

The following informative infographic from Insura.hu shows the amounts of alcohol consumed by type of drink that are likely to result in a crime if someone tries to drive a vehicle within a short period of time.