austinwrx

Suburb worst in UK for uninsured drivers
3:50am Wednesday 10th September 2008

from todays local newspaper/rag.

By Marc Meneaud »

A Bradford suburb has been shamed as the worst in the country for motorists driving without insurance, new figures have revealed.

Nearly two-thirds of car owners in the Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Thornbury areas do not have valid insurance, according to a national survey.

The BD3 area appears top of a national postcode breakdown of vehicles being driven or parked illegally, with 61 per cent of motorists driving without insurance – more than six times the national average.

Two other city postcodes also make the top ten list of shame published by the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) yesterday.

Half of all drivers (51 per cent) in the BD8 postcode, which includes Girlington, Manningham and Lower Grange, were found to be uninsured, making it the sixth worst in the country.

In Frizinghall and Heaton (BD9) almost 39 per cent of vehicles did not have insurance, ranking it tenth.

Neil Drane, a spokesman for MIB, warned insurance dodgers that the organisation was working closely with police forces to crack down on the menace of illegal drivers.

He said: “We have been working with the police to provide them with the capability to be able to target areas using greater technology and intelligence.

“As a result, police forces in the UK have taken 350,000 vehicles off the road to date over the last couple of years with 40 per cent getting crushed or disposed of.

“There is plenty of activity going on to catch people who own uninsured cars.”

Uninsured drivers kill 160 people, injure 23,000 and cost more than £500m each year in the UK, said Mr Drane. They also add £30 per year to every honest motorist’s annual premium.

However, the number of claims involving accidents with uninsured drivers has reduced by nearly ten per cent, he said.

“Progress is being made in the fight against uninsured driving, though there is much still to done to rid the UK of this dangerous and illegal practice,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Telegraph & Argus exclusively revealed that 57 per cent of motorists in BD3 were uninsured.
A major purge was started in February as part of a month-long crackdown across Yorkshire. Police used Automatic Number Plate Recognition equipment to identify uninsured vehicles which were then seized.

Following the publication of the latest figures yesterday, a West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “We take seriously the issue of uninsured drivers. The main proactive way of combating uninsured vehicles is through the use of Automatic Numberplate Recognition.

“It monitors all passing vehicles and flags up any without insurance. These are then double-checked and the vehicle is stopped, and if no valid insurance is produced the vehicle will be seized.

“The owner of the vehicle then has seven working days to produce valid insurance, if they don’t the vehicle will either be crushed or sold at auction to regain the costs.”

To check your vehicle is on the Motor Insurance Database, visit askmid.com.

austinwrx

I live within the district of Bradford (well obviously not in these dreadful areas!!!)

no wonder my insurance is slightly steeper than perhaps it should be !

PeteBrant

State run third party insurance

Problem solved overnight.

davegtt

Actually an old story, we had something similar posted about a year ago saying majority of people in Bradford are uninsured.

austinwrx

that'll have been me that did that !!

new story with new figures !!!

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Funnily enough I wrote to DfT a couple of years ago on this very subject. I believe they do it in Australia, with the cost added to fuel tax.

Suffice to say, it didn't fall on deaf ears so much as wilfully obstructive ones

PeteBrant

Indeed, it's something along those lines anyway.

You have the most basic form of third party insurance covered by the state, which obviously has certain limitations (you cant be covered on the state as a 17 year old with a ferrari) Extras you top up yourself with private insurers, like fully comp, fire, theft etc.

It would eliminate 99% of all uninsured driver problems instantly.

boxst

I don't understand why the Police just don't sit on one of the roads one evening and confiscate every car?

Steve

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

The problem they cited (though whether this was an 'official' line or just one made up by the letter-writing monkey I don't know), was the fact that if everyone's paying the same for their third party cover then there's no incentive to build up an NCB through careful driving.

I figured that one would be easily solved with a rebate, which could be claimed at the end of the year based on number of proven accident-free years and number of miles covered. Certainly the details would take some working out, but it has to be better than making only those people who do legitimately pay for insurance also pay for the liabilities of the uninsured.

That point didn't go down too well either

PeteBrant

Precisely, your idea would create an incentive to better driving. You could even do it it so you paid less at the pump, you swipe a card at the pump and the "Insurance cost" is added on per litre based on your NCB.

I am sure there are plenty of ways to incentivise better driving (not least of which is not actually having a crash and having to pay for ther repair of your car, asumming third party cover).

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

In the absence of a state run system, the real problem with uninsured drivers is that there is simply no real deterrent against doing it!

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

I live out in the middle of nowhere miles from Bradford but because I have a Bradford postcode my insurance is more expensive than it was when I lived in Herts, which was an equal distance to London as I now live to Bradford

The really annoying thing is that I have to drive through Bradford to get to the M62/M1/A1 etc and it always bothers me knowing that a huge percentage of the ***** driving erratically around me probably aren't insured, grrr

PeteBrant

Well there is *some* deterrent. - I mean most of us have insurance and drive legally - Bradford excepted.

Most people will cover thier car in the interest of protecting the money they have spent; of course if you drive a £100 banger, you aren't going to care- But most people want to drive legally, with tax and MoT and what have you.

Having said that, given todays electronic age, it would not be too difficult to cross reference registered owners to uninsured drivers and pay some visits. Just to keep people on their toes.

mamoon2

Lets recognise the problem for what it is..... Pakistani / Bangledeshi / A.N.Othereshi people thinking they are above the law and driving around in uninsured cars, mostly bag of shoite clapped out tandoori taxi's.

The problem will only be solved when the police stop ***** footing around and target these ethnic groups on a daily basis in their own self made ghettos.

Not once in that newspaper article did it mention that this is where the problem lies, why not? because people are too scared to say!

Get real people, this is the U.K, NOT Bangolore, you need some insurance and a proper driving licence, not one shared with your cousin Rasheed.

jjones

should be warming the crusher up.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Yep, it's the usual problem with motoring law, deterrent for the law abiding, does little to stop the criminals. If you're driving without insurance, there is a good chance it's cause you're already banned/or shouldn't be on the road (not qualified etc) These folks will get a further ban, which they will ignore too.

Ns04

andy97

iTrader: (1)

If they started crushing uninsured cars, then a riot would ensue, followed by a fatwa.

jjones

that's no excuse, friend had his car impounded with threats of crushing, had to take the day off work to sort it out (he is self employed) and had to pay a £200 release fee. needless to say it was insured on his traders policy as he is a self employed mechanic.

why should certain elements of our society be allowed to flaunt the law. at 150 a pop for a car in scrap value the police would be better ridding the streets of these menaces and raising revenue at the same time.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

How can you say that, that is racist an divisive, why do we allow posts like this on Scoobynet, Infract !


Ah, sorry, its called the truth, I get the impression its allowed to avoid accusations of victimisation or just simply weight of numbers, its self fullfiling prophecy, due to the numbers of accidents, uninsured drivers and the like its an Insurance nightmare, consequently prices rise and its too expensive, rather than not driving people just ignore it.

GC8

I bet that ***** Rushden is sh*tting himself!

Leslie

So yet again Pete, you are advocating that the "Stasi" come round to people's houses to check on their lives! They could really enjoy themselves with right of entry to our houses spying on all our possessions at the same time!

Driving without insurance used to be regarded as a heinous offence with very heavy penalties, and quite rightly too. These days it seems that it is cheaper to pay the fine than to pay for insurance! They should bring back the very heavy penalties and if you are caught it should be made not worth while financially as well as other penalties on top. it is the police's job to catch them.

Les

austinwrx

I can confirm that all those areas listed are heavily populated by the south east asian community. In fact specfically the pakistani community, Bradford has a 23-24% pakistani community overall.

there are also some absolute dead end white populated estates too.

Indian, eastern european, afro carribean make up only about 4 % of "other"

I can't say I've seen much evidence of clamping down. its all a bit softly softly here since all the riots. (where the SE Asian community smashed the place up for no reason) i.e it wasn't race riots or riots against anything in particular.


you should see all the pimped up accident management places around here with lambo's ferraris outside

mamoon2

Mandatory 12 month bans for anyone caught without insurance should do the trick

Devildog

Paying for it - new problem created?

PeteBrant

What do you mean "yet again"? where else have I said this?

If you read what I wrote, you will see I actually advocate a state run third party system where everyone is covered.
What did the penalty used to be, then?

PeteBrant

As has already been said - You put the cost on petrol.

It's also run not for profit

coolangatta

You got it in one!
All car owners are third party insured here.
It's not bloody rocket science, why the reluctance to do the same in the UK.

speye91

Don't be daft.

The Donut Shop will be open.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

At a guess: uniform increase in duty on petrol or road tax vs non uniform risks associated with different age groups demographics etc?

Ns04

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Also issues about what car you can have insured 17, just past test and ok for Subaru... er...unlikely. However, i'm off to read about how it works in other countries, if it does then there must be a way of doing it.

Problem is, same as a 12 month ban these un insured cars will also have no tax, likely no MOT and as has been pointed out one license (if you are lucky) between a family. I can't think of a bigger waste of time than banning a person from driving when they are already driving illegally. They'll still get a car and still drive, they don't care.

5t.