Article Written By: Aikednea Johansen
Car insurance is a legal requirement in the UK, but one in 20 drivers continue to persist in driving uninsured. The police are cracking down, and it's not simply an idle threat - if you are not insured, your car could be in a crusher near you quite shortly!The police currently have the power to remove, impound and crush any automobile found to be uninsured on the road. Last Spring, in Durham, the scheme coined 'Operation Takeaway' was piloted to fantastic success. More than 1,200 vehicles have now been impounded - 50% of those have already made it to the crusher.Operation Takeaway was such a big success that it is being rolled out across the country. A new national police database that is 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 do not even need to get out of the car to do it.If you're caught on the road with a car that is not insured, you will need to give up your car keys there and then. It does not make a difference 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 give you two weeks to yield an insurance policy certificate and take your car away. There is a couple of costs involved too - you'll need to pay around 105 to cover the cost of the tow truck, and charges for keeping your automobile impounded often reach 15 each day. Leave collecting your automobile to the last minute and you might be facing an overall bill of 315.In the event 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 cars. Based on them, as much as 2,000 accidents were avoided thanks to Operation Takeaway. Since a big proportion of the vehicles discovered to be uninsured were in fact un-roadworthy, the roads were a considerably safer place without them.As the police stated, "Uninsured drivers are frequently guilty of many 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 is a shocking fact that 5% of all drivers are uninsured, a criminal offence because it's a legal requirement. Extra research done by the Association of British Insurers has discovered that uninsured drivers are a dangerous presence on the roads, each uninsured driver causing an average of one accident every six months. They are also 3 times much more likely to receive a conviction for driving without due care and attention.Those of us 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 means law-abiding motorists pay a tremendous total of 500 million every year for those who can't 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 will lose your no-claims bonus except if you've got claims protection. Over a two-year period, you could pay an additional 275 in premiums because of a reduction in your no-claims entitlement.The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is in full support of this new scheme to rid the roads of uninsured cars. The ABI has been a critic of the way the British courts deal with uninsured drivers for several years now, but they still don't believe this scheme is enough. Offenders usually only get a fine of 150-200 and they don't need 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!
This Article Has Been Published on Sat, 6 Nov 2010 and Read 158 Times