Car insurance is a legal requirement in the UK, but one in twenty drivers persist in driving uninsured. The police are cracking down, and it is not just an idle threat - if you're not insured, your car might be in a crusher near you very shortly!
The police now have the power to remove, impound and crush any car found to be uninsured on the street. Last Spring, in Durham, the scheme coined 'Operation Takeaway' was piloted to great success. More than 1,200 cars have now been impounded - 50% of those have already made it to the crusher.
Operation Takeaway was such a huge success that it's being rolled out across the country. A new national police database that's supported by the insurance industry has given the police the ability to verify the insurance status of each and every car in the UK. They don't even need to get out of the automobile to do it.
If you are caught on the street with a car that's not insured, you'll need to give up your car keys there and then. It doesn't matter if it is an accidental mistake or you've been driving uninsured for years, the penalty is the same - your car gets impounded.
What happens next? Well, they offer you 2 weeks to produce an insurance policy certificate and take your car away. There is a few costs involved as well - you will have to pay approximately ?105 to cover the cost of the tow truck, and charges for keeping your automobile impounded frequently reach ?15 each day. Leave collecting your car to the last minute and you could be facing an overall bill of ?315.
If you cannot produce the insurance certificate and pay the charges, you can say goodbye to your car.
The pilot scheme in Durham was funded in part by Direct Line, who helped cover the costs of crushing the vehicles. Based on them, up to 2,000 accidents were prevented thanks to Operation Takeaway. Since a large proportion of the vehicles found to be uninsured were in fact un-roadworthy, the roads were a noticeably safer place without them.
As the police said, "Uninsured drivers are frequently guilty of several other offences like not having a driving licence or an MOT certificate. We are doing everything in our power to get these dangerous and illegal drivers off our roads."
It's a shocking fact that 5% of all drivers are uninsured, a criminal offence simply because it's a legal requirement. Extra research done by the Association of British Insurers has found that uninsured drivers are a dangerous presence on the roads, each uninsured driver causing an average of one accident every 6 months. They are also three times more likely to get a conviction for driving without due care and attention.
People who do have car insurance cover the costs of these uninsured accidents. On average, ?30 is added in to every car insurance policy to cover the costs to the industry due to uninsured motorists. That indicates law-abiding motorists pay a tremendous total of ?500 million every year for those who cannot be bothered to pay up.
There's another bitter pill to swallow. If you have an accident that's not your fault with an uninsured automobile, it'll still go down as a "fault claim" on your insurance. So you will have to pay the excess on your car repairs and you'll lose your no-claims bonus except if you have got claims protection. Over a two-year period, you might pay an additional ?275 in premiums thanks to a reduction in your no-claims entitlement.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is in full support of this new scheme to free the roads of uninsured cars. The ABI has been a critic of the way the British courts handle uninsured drivers for several years now, but they still do not believe this scheme is enough. Offenders usually only get a fine of ?150-?200 and they do not have to pay immediately - which truly does not compare to the additional costs incurred by motorists who do have car insurance. We agree - something needs to be done!
iAutoblog the premier autoblogger software
Commenti
Posta un commento