|
|||||||||||||
|
Summary Uninsured drivers are having their cars confiscated and crushed. Harsh treatment? This article thinks not!
Car Insurance. Uninsured cars to be crushedAuthor: Michael Challiner
Are you one of the one in twenty motorists who regularly drive without insurance? You'd better watch out - your car could be heading for the crusher and shipped off to the world's biggest scrap smelter in China!
New powers now allow the police to seize, impound and crush any car found on the road without insurance. A pilot scheme was introduced in Durham last spring. Since then, police have impounded more than 1,200 cars. Of those around half have been crushed into cubes and packed off for smelting. Now if you're caught red handed without car insurance you're forced to hand your keys ( medical insurance ) to the police at the roadside. There are no exceptions - this applies to everyone; it doesn't matter if it's just a forgetful mistake or conscious driving without insurance. And if you don't reclaim your car, off to the crusher it goes! During the pilot scheme, the cost of crushing the cars was partly funded by ( insurance ) Direct Line. They have estimated that Operation Takeaway prevented up to 2,000 accidents. And many of the cars impounded by the police were found to be un-roadworthy. Indeed, uninsured drivers are much greater problem than many of us would expect. The Department of Transport recently reported that 1 in 20 motorists regularly drive without insurance. Furthermore, research from the Association of British Insurers discovered that uninsured drivers are amongst the most dangerous on the roads. On average they cause one accident every six months and are three times more likely to be convicted of driving without due care and attention. And who pays for those uninsured accidents? We do! The average car insurance premium is loaded by £30 to cover the cost of damage caused by uninsured motorists. Across the UK that adds up to an extra £500 million paid out each year by the law-abiding motorists! But that's not the end of our financial pain. If an uninsured vehicle collides into your car, it's still recorded as a "fault claim" on your policy. This means you'll have to pay the excess when your car is repaired and unless you've got Claims Protection on your policy, your no-claims bonus will take a knocking. Over a two-year period, the reduction in your no claims bonus could easily cost £275 in higher premiums. The move to take cars off the road and crush them has been warmly welcomed by the Association of British Insurers. The ABI has long criticised the leniency of punishment handed out by the courts to uninsured motorists but they still want tougher penalties. Offenders are typically fined just £150 to £200 - with time to pay - and this is much less than the average car insurance premium. Surely this cannot be true justice! |
|||||||||||||