Do Uninsured Drivers Get Off Scot Free?

Why uninsured drivers are bumping up your car insurance premiums.

Should the punishments and penalties for driving without  car insurance be increased?

Last week saw a grieving mother condemn an uninsured driver who was handed a £265 fine for causing a crash which resulted in the death of her daughter.

Despite driving without insurance being illegal, fines of this size are often handed out to drivers that kill while driving uninsured and are routinely blasted by victims' families and road safety groups alike.

In the latest case nineteen-year-old Samuel Clements was speeding along a busy dual carriageway in his unroadworthy and uninsured Renault 19. He lost control of the car and rolled it along an embankment until it came to rest upside down. His fifteen-year-old passenger, Sarah Gaecke, was stumbling out of the wreckage when she was struck and killed by another car.

Clements was fined £25 for driving without a licence, £40 for having a defective tyre and £200 for having no insurance. He was also ordered to pay £80 costs and given eight penalty points on his driving licence.

This has to change. 

A new law may be introduced this summer which could see motorists charged with causing death while driving unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured. The charge could carry a maximum two-year jail term. As it stands at the moment, punishments for uninsured drivers remain pitifully inadequate and it's law-abiding drivers who are footing the bill.

Who pays?

If you drive, then you do. According to the Motor Insurers' Bureau, responsible drivers pay an average of £25 to £30 extra on their car insurance policy to cover the cost of accidents involving uninsured drivers. This means that collectively British motorists are paying more than £500 million to cover people who can't be bothered to insure their vehicles.

The legal minimum requirement for car insurance is third party cover which is meant to ensure that anyone involved in a serious accident is covered for medical costs and personal liability. Those who don't properly insure their vehicle risk six to eight points on their license or a ban, and a fine of anything up to £5,000. Owners of uninsured vehicles also risk having them crushed.

However in most cases uninsured drivers get away with a derisory £250 fine, little more than twice the fine you'd get for parking on double yellow lines or driving in a bus lane, and a fraction of the average premium for comprehensive cover which currently stands at £681.93.

What should the Government do?

At a time when motorists are under pressure from record fuel prices there are calls for the Government to get tough on uninsured drivers. Recent YouGov research shows that 87% of motorists feel that the Government doesn't do enough to prevent people driving without insurance.

Some say that at a minimum the punishment should include increasing the average fine to a figure considerably above the cost of the policy, otherwise you can see why some people risk driving uninsured: If the fine will be less than the cost of the insurance, why bother?

If you're unlucky enough to be caught up in an accident with an uninsured driver you could face a lengthy battle to have your costs paid.

If you've got fully comprehensive cover, your insurer will pay for repairs to your car but you might lose your no claims discount. Other costs, like medical and legal bills, might not be covered. And if you have only third party cover, you won't be covered at all.

Where drivers are left with unpaid costs as a result of an accident with an uninsured driver, compensation can be claimed from the Motor Insurer's Bureau (mib.org.uk) which is a fund paid for directly by insurers, but indirectly by insured drivers. However the process can be time-consuming and drivers will be expected to take steps to find out if the other driver is insured as well as reporting the accident to the police.

So what can be done? Is a derisory fine of £250 or so enough for driving without car insurance or even killing someone? Should uninsured drivers be automatically banned from driving or even jailed? And will the new law go far enough to deter those drivers who think the rules of the road don't apply to them?

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