Road Traffic Accidents – Hit and run or the guilty party has no Insurance - Solution

Driving without Insurance has reached epidemic proportions in Britain. More than half a million cases were discovered by Police in 2000, and 300,000 drivers were prosecuted. But according to the motoring industry, the Police are barely scratching the surface. "We think the real figure for uninsured driving is close to three million," says Edmund King, executive director of the RAC foundation. "This means that one in ten drivers is breaking the law." Sadly, on Merseyside these statistics are even higher.

This criminal behaviour is hitting the pocket of every honest driver in Britain. If you are involved in an accident with an Insurance cheat, even if you have comprehensive cover you must pay the excess on your policy and may lose your no-claims bonus. As well as being considerably out of pocket through expenses arising from the accident.

If you have only third party Insurance, and are not covered for personal injury or your own repairs, you will have to seek the help of the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB), which can involve a lengthy process. Even then, the MIB will not pay the first £300.00 of damage.

The cost of funding the bureau adds as much as £30.00 to the premium of every Insured driver.

Some blame the Insurance industry itself for the scale of the problem. According to the RAC Foundation’s road safety manager Kevin Delaney, "Companies have been cherry picking, preferring to cover older drivers, making it expensive for young drivers to get insured. An 18 year old, I know got a Volvo 340 for £400 and was asked £950 just to insure it third party, fire and theft. When he asked his mates how they’d got Insurance, five out of eight didn’t have any."

Dominic Burch of Insurers Direct Line says, "Most European Countries insure the car third party and cover members of a family or partners to drive it. If some drivers are under 25, the premiums will reflect that, but they are not as loaded as in the UK.

"However, the real reason that uninsured driving is such a problem here compared with Europe", says Burch "is that historically it has been viewed as a victimless crime and the penalties for getting caught are very low. The maximum fine Magistrates can hand down is £5,000, but this has to be related to a person’s means: the average fine is just £160." Says the AA’s head of road safety, Andrew Howard "If a driver is asked to pay £1,000 to insure an old car, he might well think what’s the point?"

Often offenders pay nothing at all. Ian Mantel of Hastings was devastated when his Mini Cooper was wrecked by an old banger crashing into it in a quiet street.

"The lad at the wheel had no license or Insurance, yet he got off with a caution as he couldn’t afford the fine. That’s not punishment," says Ian indignantly.

But it’s not just young drivers who are breaking the law – as a glance at Court reports in any local paper reveals. In just one day the Bournemouth Daily Echo reported that Gary Clarke, 30 of Bournemouth was fined £50 plus £35 costs for driving without Insurance; Brian Beale, 46 also of Bournemouth was fined £50 plus £35; and Mark Stratton, 41, of Poole was fined £100 plus £35 costs.

The Insurance industry has taken the first step towards helping the Police identify rogue drivers, by investing £20 million in a motor insurance database. Now Police can look up a driver’s details on computer, saving valuable time checking paperwork.

An even greater deterrent though would be a law requiring drivers to display an Insurance disc on the windscreen, next to the tax disc. Insurance disc schemes are widely used in Europe. It is about time this scheme is introduced in the UK. Readers are urged to write to your local MP C/o the House of Commons to press for a change in the law by bringing in Insurance display discs. We would all benefit from such a scheme and reduce our Insurance premium. Currently £30 of our premiums is paying for the operation of the Motor Insurers Bureau.

Above all, if we are serious about changing driver attitudes, Britain must introduce tougher penalties. Imposing heavy fines on people who cannot pay achieves nothing – but there could be an alternative. A consultation paper produced by the Home Office in December 2000 called for the introduction of community sentences for offenders. "if uninsured drivers have to spend several weeks dragging prams out of canals, they’ll think twice about doing it again," says Andrew Howard.

In the most serious cases the consultation paper proposes that Magistrates be allowed to confiscate vehicles. Jackie Briscoe, a mother from Merseyside whose husband was killed by an uninsured driver, heartily approves of this. "Scrapping cars taken from those driving dangerously without Insurance or a license would cut road deaths," she says.

The Home Office paper was enthusiastically welcomed. Two years on, however, David Blunkett has yet to produce a bill that could turn these proposals into law.

In the meantime the Motor Insurers Bureau operates as an Insurance of last resort by providing cover where the victim is injured as a result of untraced motorist (untraced motorist scheme). Most people tend to think only of hit and run victims, however the scheme is much wider and covers liability for all RTA’s e.g. an injury caused by skidding on oil or debris dropped on the road where the debris is probably from a motor vehicle. Such victims would receive the same level of compensation that they would receive if claiming directly from the guilty motorist. Damages would include a payment for personal injuries including loss of earnings, medical treatment, damage to clothing etc. The Motor Insurers Bureau would expect the RTA to be reported to the Police. Claims may be handled by a Solicitor under the uninsured Motorist scheme. The Motor Insurers Bureau will meet claims for not only personal injuries but also all financial loss including damage to the motor vehicle, hire of another vehicle or loss of use of the car. Under both schemes it is advisable to be represented by a solicitor. Norman Jones is pleased to help in such claims.

Jean Harkin, partner in the firm says "if a person is injured as a result of a road traffic accident he should ensure the matter is reported to the Police, if not at the time then as soon as possible thereafter. Many MIB claims fail due to the fact that the injured party never reported the matter to the Police."