Uninsured drivers have always presented a real problem, and it so annoying for the rest of us who fully insure our cars. If an uninsured driver is involved in an accident with your car, even if it's not your fault, you'll have no choice but to claim on your own insurance policy, as of course, you can't claim on theirs!
The number of cases of uninsured drivers though is falling. In 2005 there were an estimated 2 million uninsured cars of the road, it is thought that this figure is now more like 1.2 million. This is thought be mainly due to the automatic
number plate recognition or ANPR system that the police now use to spot uninsured vehicles on our roads. Also, any cars found without insurance can now be seized by the police, a power given to them in 2005. They are then impounded until the owners can prove that the car is insured. There's also a fine to pay and the owners are charged for the storage of the vehicle. If vehicles are not claimed then they are either crushed or sold at auction if they are of a higher value.
Insurance records are stored on the Motor Insurance Database or MID. You can double check to make sure your vehicle is listed there by visiting
www.askMID.com.
Photo credit: Stephen Craven [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Uninsured drivers have always presented a real problem, and it so annoying for the rest of us who fully insure our cars. If an uninsured driver is involved in an accident with your car, even if it's not your fault, you'll have no choice but to claim on your own insurance policy, as of course, you can't claim on theirs!
The number of cases of uninsured drivers though is falling. In 2005 there were an estimated 2 million uninsured cars of the road, it is thought that this figure is now more like 1.2 million. This is thought be mainly due to the automatic number plate recognition or ANPR system that the police now use to spot uninsured vehicles on our roads. Also, any cars found without insurance can now be seized by the police, a power given to them in 2005. They are then impounded until the owners can prove that the car is insured. There's also a fine to pay and the owners are charged for the storage of the vehicle. If vehicles are not claimed then they are either crushed or sold at auction if they are of a higher value.
Insurance records are stored on the Motor Insurance Database or MID. You can double check to make sure your vehicle is listed there by visiting www.askMID.com.
Photo credit: Stephen Craven [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
