It has been brought to my attention that more than 40,000 uninsured drivers are out on the roads in the North East of England. In some areas, it has been noted that almost one in five cars will be without any sort of cover at all, whilst arrests have reached a peak in the Northumbria area – with a quadrupling of arrests for driving without cover since 2004.
Safety campaigners are keen to point out the relevant statistical ‘facts’ too – that uninsured drivers are ten times more likely to drink-drive and three times more likely to be convicted (not just arrested there) than your standard, insured citizen. Not surprising really is it, if someone is quite happy to break the law with regard to insurance, I doubt they’d have a qualm about the legal requirement to drive with due care and attention either.
In the North East alone, there were 3198 crashes involving uninsured drivers. I’m sure you’ll all agree that is actually quite a high number – especially just for one area of England. So why do people do it? Well for one thing, there’s the usual excuse of ‘well my car’s insurance is actually more than the car’. This is worrying on two levels. First of all, if you scrimp on the few hundred quid it’ll cost for your (s)crapmobile, exactly how often do you get it serviced? Do your brakes work? Are your tyres at the legal tread depth? No, I didn’t think so.
Secondly, if people feel that there’s no point in purchasing insurance, they’re sorely mistaken. There are a good number of reasons, but here’s the main one. Protection. Insurance can be costly, there’s no doubt about it. But have you ever taken a look at a liability case where someone has caused the death of another? Well this will carry a jail sentence, along with a near-unlimited fine. Insurance gives you legal protection in the face of a lawsuit for whatever reason involving your vehicle.
The protection afforded by insurance also covers you. Quite often, good insurance will allow you to drive another car (this is more useful than it at first may seem), cover any valuables you may have in the vehicle or even provide you with breakdown cover through a third party. All very valuable no?
Of course criminals come in all shapes and sizes and that’s exactly what uninsured drivers are – it is after all illegal to drive a vehicle without insurance. So what sort of person might do this? Well first of all, you have the young ‘just passed’ driver. Their reasoning is normally the one above – cost. However, I’ll say this. If you can’t afford all the costs of a car (this includes fuel, oil, serving and insurance) then DO NOT GET ONE. Cars as a mode of transport are a privilege not a right. Because you have a driving license you don’t have a license to break the law.
Another type of driver that may not have insurance is the ‘not so savoury type’. Granted, sometimes people may borrow a car very quickly, but there are others who may ‘borrow’ a car for a longer time. They are also more likely to be driving unsafely remember – so we’re better off without them on the road too.
Foreign drivers, unfortunately, don’t always come along with the correct level of insurance. Apparently, cops are told to take just as hard a line with them too – whether this happens or not I won’t speculate but once again, they are braking the law. They need protection and so do the rest of us on the road.
So what might happen if you get caught? New powers mean that the police can legitimately seize uninsured vehicles anywhere if found to have been driven uninsured, or if uninsured by the registered keeper. New technology means that the law-breaker is much more likely to get caught.
What’s the bottom line? There are a few things that you need in life if you’re going to drive. The first is a license for the type of vehicle you’re going to drive. The second is a safe, regularly serviced vehicle. The third is fuel. The final essential is insurance. Don’t leave him without it.
Leave a Reply