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Your car could be crushed if you don’t have car insurance

03 September 2008 05:24:00

New plans should cut average premium by £30

Ministers are set to claim that a clampdown on uninsured drivers, due to be launched in autumn, could potentially help to cut motor insurance premiums for other drivers.

Uninsured drivers are known to be involved in over 23,000 deaths and injuries on the roads each year. This adds around £30 to the average car insurance premium for other motorists. However, until now the police could only prosecute uninsured drivers if they caught them committing the crime.

This week, ministers are set to reveal their plans for a new offence of keeping a vehicle uninsured. The scheme will allow police to use DVLA records with insurance industry databases in order to identify vehicles which appear to be uninsured.

The owners of suspected uninsured vehicles will be sent warning letters. If they fail to act on the warnings, and do not take out motor insurance, they will receive a fine of £100 and may have their vehicles seized and crushed.

The road safety minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, is set to meet with representatives from the insurance industry to talk through how the plans might be put into action.

According to a Department of Transport official, if the number of uninsured drivers on the road was cut by just a third it would save insurers £764m in the course of five years which could then result in a drop in premiums for insured drivers.

Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, said: “A small hard core of drivers who refuse to insure their cars push up premiums for responsible motorists and kill or injure thousands of people each year.

“We’re determined to get these antisocial drivers off our roads.

“These tough new powers will leave uninsured drivers with nowhere to hide,” she added.

On the negative side, critics are set to argue that the £100 fine is less than that faced by drivers caught on the road. They will also argue that the system of cross-checking several different databases will not help to catch all offenders because the searches will reveal whether or not the vehicle is insured, although the vehicle may not be insured for the person driving it.

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