Honest Motorists Are Bearing A High Cost For Uninsured Drivers

Over 3 million drivers have been involved in a collision with an uninsured driver, resulting in a high cost in terms of injury and even death as well as rising insurance costs to cover for those who fail to buy car insurance.

Research from Direct Line and road safety charity Brake shows that 1 in 10 drivers, some 3.3 million people have been involved in a collision with an uninsured driver.

Of those crashes involving uninsured drivers, 25% ended up with someone being injured, of which 4% left at least one person dead.

Driving without car insurance is illegal and the survey found that often it’s law abiding drivers, those who have taken the time to buy car insurance, who are injured.

Not only are uninsured drivers causing death and injury on our roads, in 17% of collisions they did not stop and left the scene and even when they did stop 32% lied and said they were insured and 23% tried to ‘not get the insurers involved’.

Andy Goldby, Director of Motor Underwriting at Direct Line car insurance said: “Whilst uninsured drivers cost every honest motorist £30 a year, the real cost is the devastation they cause to other road users’ lives.  Uninsured drivers not only show disregard for the law but for other people too.”

Julie Townsend, Campaigns Director at Brake, said: “Research shows that people who take to the road uninsured are more likely to crash and cause tragic deaths and injuries, so it’s vital that we see action to remove these highly irresponsible and illegal drivers from our roads.

We welcome the Government and Motor Insurers’ Bureau’s new initiative to step up enforcement on this issue, and we hope this will leave uninsured drivers with nowhere to hide.”

Continuous Insurance Enforcement

In the coming months Continuous Insurance Enforcement will be launched to tackle uninsured driving. Under the new powers it will be an offence to keep an uninsured vehicle, rather than just to drive, when uninsured.

Under the new system:

• The DVLA will work in partnership with the Motor Insurers’ Bureau to identify uninsured vehicles.
• Motorists will receive a letter telling them that their vehicle appears to be uninsured and warning them that they will be fined unless they take action.
• If the keeper fails to insure the vehicle they will be given a £100 fine.
• If the vehicle remains uninsured – regardless of whether the fine is paid – it could then be seized and destroyed.

MoneyHighStreet.com comment: The cost of car insurance premiums are still rising, now standing at an average £835, up some £220 in just 12 months.

Apart from the injury related costs and associated stress and worry caused by uninsured drivers, it is unacceptable that a significant payment, currently around £30, has to be made by law abiding drivers to simply cover the costs incurred by these drivers. We too welcome the Continuous Enforcement Initiative to help tackle the issue of uninsured drivers.