Uninsured

[I am Spartacus]

3 people a week killed by uninsured drivers.... apparently..

3 a week .. strewth

still makes more sense to rant (any day recently in the DMail) against uninsured cyclists and assorted misdemeanours and a call to the police to enforce all laws.. (including spoke reflectors..??)

ah well.. you just really want to be British sometimes

 

[I am Spartacus]

I have been looking at any local 'chav' car driver ..male under 25, recently that passes me.. and I do wonder... 'are you.(insured)..buddy?'
if you stick to . local roads.. you can still avoid those number plate check zones...
Any Subaru Impreza.. very wide berth

 

[Bman]

I fail to understand why they still do it. Surely they will all get caught eventually.

Road Wars is getting boring with all the uninsured drivers they catch with the ANPR systems each episode. I wanna see chavs being maced and drug dealers being rugby tackled!

 

[I am Spartacus]

there will always be loopholes then..?

 

[siadwell]

What is supposed to be the percentage of uninsured drivers on the roas in the UK now? I'm sure I remember hearing it was something ridiculous for some areas - about 15% or something? Or am I dreaming?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8272054.stm

Parts of England with the largest number of uninsured drivers have been revealed in new research.

The worst offenders were in Greater London, Merseyside and Greater Manchester, with 13%, 12% and 10% of vehicles uninsured, the research found.

The Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB), which compensates people in accidents with uninsured drivers, estimates over 1.7m people drove without cover in 2008.
​

 

[summerdays]

So let me see:

The group warned that people driving without insurance could have their vehicle seized and would be given a minimum of six penalty points on their licence and incur a £200 fine.

And to get insurance will cost how much? I don't think the fine is high enough. Currently if I was that way inclined I would think the benefits out weigh the risks of not getting insurance.

 

[siadwell]

More from the above news item:

The MIB is launching a campaign to warn drivers not to let their cover lapse.

The group warned that people driving without insurance could have their vehicle seized and would be given a minimum of six penalty points on their licence and incur a £200 fine.

It added that automatic number plate recognition technology, combined with information from the Motor Insurance Database, leads to as many as 500 uninsured vehicles being seized every day.
​

Sometimes I don't think the legislators in this country are on the wrong planet. Why do they think people are driving without insurance? Spend £50 on an old banger and you're on the road. Don't worry about filling the DVLA paperwork in. No need to waste money on insurance, as the £200 fine is cheaper. Points on the licence? Wot licence? And if there's no licence, no insurance, no MOT, no VED, there's no record, so all the ANPR cameras in the country won't find them unless they get stopped by a real life police officer.

Oh lordy, I'm starting to sound like a Daily Wail reader...

 

[gavintc]

In a couple of countries I have lived in, the insurance expiry and MoT date links to the VED expiry date. This allows police and traffic wardens to check the legality of the car; VED, MoT and Tax all visible in the windscreen. Seems sensible to me.

 

[Arch]

In a couple of countries I have lived in, the insurance expiry and MoT date links to the VED expiry date. This allows police and traffic wardens to check the legality of the car; VED, MoT and Tax all visible in the windscreen. Seems sensible to me.

<Daily Mail mode>
What! What kind of police state do want us to live in? We don't want our police wasting whole seconds of time checking tax discs when they could be out beating up immigrants....

</Daily Mail>

Ugh, I feel dirty now...

The more I think about it, alas, the more the answer seems to be... emigrate.

 

[meenaghman]

In the Republic a valid tax disc and insurers disc needs to be displayed. In the North tax and MOT disc have to be displayed (although I've not heard of anyone being done on MOT disc yet). In both Northern Ireland and the Republic the MOTs are carried out by independent testing bodies... so no going down the backstreet garage and getting one filled in.

 

[wafflycat]

Another approach would be to have a premium for basic third party insurance built-in to the cost of fuel, so that everyone has at least basic third party cover by default. (Basically those of us who are insured are paying for that anyway, as part of our insurance premium goes to the MIB, to provide a compensation scheme for people injured by uninsured drivers, hit-and-run drivers.) Possibly with some form of tax incentive/discounting to encourage the taking up of comprehensive cover. Yet another to have a disc similar to VED which has to be displayed on windscreen of vehicle. Yet another to seriously ramp up the penalties for failing to have insurance (minimum £5k?) along with a blitz on enforcement by plod. Part of the problem is the insurance companies themselves by putting the cost of insurance so high. Yes, I know younger drivers are a higher risk, but having been looking at the cost of having 20/21 year old driver as a named driver on my car insurance (for son to learn) and then the cost of him having his own vehicle/own insurance, the cost is *huge* so I'm not surprised there are so many uninsured drivers. I don't condone it but I do understand it. Add into that rural areas as there is p!$$poor public transport, poor wages, yet people still have to get to work, schools, shopping..

 

[Crankarm]

Another approach would be to have a premium for basic third party insurance built-in to the cost of fuel, so that everyone has at least basic third party cover by default. (Basically those of us who are insured are paying for that anyway, as part of our insurance premium goes to the MIB, to provide a compensation scheme for people injured by uninsured drivers, hit-and-run drivers.) Possibly with some form of tax incentive/discounting to encourage the taking up of comprehensive cover. Yet another to have a disc similar to VED which has to be displayed on windscreen of vehicle. Yet another to seriously ramp up the penalties for failing to have insurance (minimum £5k?) along with a blitz on enforcement by plod. Part of the problem is the insurance companies themselves by putting the cost of insurance so high. Yes, I know younger drivers are a higher risk, but having been looking at the cost of having 20/21 year old driver as a named driver on my car insurance (for son to learn) and then the cost of him having his own vehicle/own insurance, the cost is *huge* so I'm not surprised there are so many uninsured drivers. I don't condone it but I do understand it. Add into that rural areas as there is p!$$poor public transport, poor wages, yet people still have to get to work, schools, shopping..

.......... Get a bicycle?

 

[wafflycat]

Have you heard of.......... bicycles?

Indeed I have. I'm even known to use a few now and again.

On the other hand, if you're even more ancient than me and have less fortunate health, cycling may not (shock! horror!) be the universal answer some think it is. It is certainly a part of the solution, but not the whole of.

 

[wafflycat]

Oh ye of little faith. You just need to get some more of them sustrans trails Waffly!

Wash your mouth out with soap bonnie laad!

 

[Arch]

.......... Get a bicycle?

Well, that's easy for us to say. On the other hand, if you need to carry kids or a lot of stuff and you live out in the sticks and you're in a hurry or the weather is lousy, or you don't happen to be a committed cyclist... The private car has it's uses, and that's one of them. I have a friend who lives 16 miles out of York. Yeah, I can ride there, and back, I'd allow an hour to hour and a half each way, and I wouldn't want to do it in the dark, because the road is winding and narrow and drivers tend to get up to 60 as quickly as they can. In that situation, I wouldn't begrudge anyone the use of a car.

Some sort of universal insurance sounds like a good idea to me too. Hell, I'd even see it applied to bikes (at a very low premium) if it would shut up the whingers - I'm covered 3rd party by the CTC of course.