Uninsured drivers.

[Chippy_Tea]

I keep an eye on twitter and local police tweets as i drive for a living, every day they tweet several times that they have taken uninsured drivers cars off them, having just read this i am amazed at how common it is.

The MIB is the mechanism in the UK through which compensation is provided for victims of accidents caused by uninsured and untraced drivers, which is funded by an estimated £30 a year from every insured driver's premiums.

Despite a steady downward trend since 2005, causing uninsured driver numbers to almost halve, the organisation reports that compensation pay-outs due to uninsured drivers has increased from 21,972 in July 2014 to 24,213 in July this year. This represents a year-on-year monthly increase of 2,241 or 10.2%.

The Bureau has identified that a third of uninsured drivers are under 30 years of age and suggests that the soaring cost of insurance is encouraging higher risk motorists to ‘chance it’ without proper insurance cover in place.

“Every year, thousands of people are injured and killed by uninsured drivers. They pose a real threat to other motorists and road users. To address this, we are working proactively with police forces across the UK.”

Last month’s figures revealed that over 27,000 uninsured cars had been seized so far this year. The Met led the way with 9,935 vehicles seized, followed by West Yorkshire police who seized 27,688 vehicles, according to a study commissioned by Churchill Car Insurance.

Seized vehicle stats

Of the 70,430 cars apprehended by police last year, two were Ferraris, three were Lamborghinis, 10 were Bentleys and 40 were Porsches.

70,430 cars were taken by police last year, 1,892 seized cars were sold at auction" raising over £1million.

6,736 vehicles were crushed, generating a scrap value of over £600,000.

Read full report - https://callwiser.co.uk/news/uninsured-driving

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Just tweeted -

NW Motorway Police ‏@NWmwaypolice 10 minutes ago
Vehicle seized for no insurance

 

[chewie]

With the huge increase in ANPR cameras everywhere whats surprising is that people think they can get away with it, i suspect though that a large number of those claims will be from police pursuits of joy riders or uninsured drivers, 1 car clipping 3 or 4 others in a pursuit = 3 or 4 claims, or a lot more claims if injuries occur.

 

[Spoon]

With the huge increase in ANPR cameras everywhere whats surprising is that people think they can get away with it

Could also be wrongly insured, steal some middle aged lady in some rural part of the country's details, and insure your Saxo VTS as a 17yr old in central London.

 

[Shampoo]

27,000 cars of the 36.7 million cars on the road is pretty small, 0.07%. I mean, sure, no one should be driving on the roads uninsured but it's still fairly good going. We aint too lawless as a country yet when it comes to the highways. :thumb:

 

[chewie]

Could also be wrongly insured, steal some middle aged lady in some rural part of the country's details, and insure your Saxo VTS as a 17yr old in central London.

It will probably only be a matter of time before the software is in place that will detect identical number plates at different locations at similar times (maybe it already does) , the insurance bureau should also be cross checking details randomly and flagging up issues where apparently the same person is registered in two different locations.

 

[Thodd]

This was posted on the independent a couple of hours ago - bye bye Gold Maserati with no insurance.........

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/police-seize-gold-maserati-l-plates-driver-no-insurance-towed-kingston-a7193711.html

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you suspect someone in your area is driving uninsured you can check here - https://ownvehicle.askmid.com/

 

[Chippy_Tea]

27,000 cars of the 36.7 million cars on the road is pretty small, 0.07%.

That is only the ones they caught, imagine how many uninsured cars there are on the roads.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

This is the problem a £300 fine is not going to deter them it needs to be more than what it would have cost them to insure it in the first place.

Lancs Road Police ‏@LancsRoadPolice 12h12 hours ago

Early hours seizure for no insurance in Blackpool. Driver reported and now faces 6 points and £300 fine

 

[mike-os]

Minimum fine should be all costs, including police and court.......

 

[Russ146]

Parents thinking the're helping their little darlings get cheap insurance by insuring the car in mummys name and adding the offspring as a "named driver" If the car is registered in the childs name and they are the main driver the insurance is VOID and gets taken off the road.

 

[ScouseBrew]

Fines don't deter people from repeat offending IMHO, they just don't pay the fine- prisons are too full to do anything with them. Personally, I think non insured drivers are probably guilty of other offences like drink/drug driving, not mot (which you might not think is too bad but believe me, a car out of mot for a good length of time is dangerous) and will generally be an awful driver. What would I do? Don't know, wish I had the answer, but don't see why my insurance premiums got up each year, especially when a part of my premium covers other drivers affected by un insured tossers!! 😤😤

 

[Russ146]

You walk down the road and blow someones brains out at random with a shotgun and its Life in Prison

You drive and talk/text on your phone and kill someone and its a pathetic fine and a year ban.

Its a sick world

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Its a sick world

It most certainly is.

 

[Richie_asg1]

But I pay my insurance based ONLY on what my vehicle is worth. It shouldn't matter what I hit or what hits me?
If for example I had a horse galloping out of control towards me and I took evasive action to avoid a death or injury of the rider, but by doing so ran into a low wall or one of the "Helpful" black bollards the council put everywhere - I would expect the cost to be covered by my insurance - even though the horse/cyclist/ child buggy may not have insurance.

It should not matter what I hit or hits me - I claim on my insurance- not theirs.

If the Law mandates that every vehicle on the road be insured - why is this not organised by the government like Tax and MOT tests so they can use the same database?

 

[Dutto]

This subject has interested me for many years.

On the one hand I absolutely loath uninsured drivers ...

... on the other hand I also loath insurance companies.

The current practice of ALL insurance companies is that they "cherry pick" their clients to maximise their profits.

It's a perfect system for knackered old men like me. I drive a motorhome at a very sedate pace and haven't had an accident for over forty years, but it must be hell for the youngsters who are just starting out and are trying to get affordable insurance for their first car or motorbike.

Personally, I think there should be a Government sponsored "Third Party, Fire and Theft" policy available to everyone and based purely on the value and maximum speed of the vehicle being insured and NOT the person driving it.

With an affordable insurance policy available I don't think it would be unjust to make the punishment for driving an uninsured vehicle a massive fixed price fine and a minimum one-year driving ban.

We have so many laws that can be used to control the actions of a vehicle's driver that we don't need insurance companies to decide who can and cannot drive a vehicle on a road, especially when this decision is based purely on insurance company profits.

 

[cmwood64]

At last, someone with a handle on the issue. Most uninsured drivers are young guys who can't afford the extortionate rates the insurance companies want to charge. I appreciate that they are higher risk, but the premiums for young drivers are ridiculous. It's no wonder some of them don't bother with insurance.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

 

[Shampoo]

-snip-

A halfway measure could be to introduce price caps on insurance bands for first time/accident free drivers. If the car is a pathetic little 1ltr with like 50hp, then an insurance company shouldnt be allowed to charge such extortionate rates.

If someone has an accident, or speeding etc, then by all means increase the premiums. As you say though, the problem at the moment is they're shafting new drivers heavily (young or old tbh).

 

[Cwrw666]

Parents thinking the're helping their little darlings get cheap insurance by insuring the car in mummys name and adding the offspring as a "named driver" If the car is registered in the childs name and they are the main driver the insurance is VOID and gets taken off the road.

That used to be a way of getting cheaper insurance for young drivers but it doesn't apply these days as the insurance cost is based on the the most expensive of any named drivers. It's still a bit cheaper than it would be for the young person because of any discount the parent gets, but not that much cheaper.
My wife insures our second car with me and my 21 year old daughter as named drivers - this was at the suggestion of the insurance company.

What really bugs me though is that the basis of any form of insurance is that the many pay a small amount so that the few are covered when they have an accident. But then the insurance companies decided to sort the many by their risk of having accidents so they could offer cheap insurance to low risk groups but of course charge a fortune to high risk groups. On this basis I would never have learned to drive.