No insurance rant!
Discussion
If its one thing that pisses me off more than the speeding issue is that of driving without insurance
When I have paid in no less than 3 years well over £2.5k in insurance premiums it boils my pi55 to think how many people drive without it and even more so when they get a measly fine when caught.
When are the govt going to realise that the punishment must be more severe than the savings of not insuring your car? Its not rocket science FFS.
What? They can afford the fine? BAN THEM! A car is a luxury not a right, if you cant afford to buy/tax/insure a car DONT HAVE ONE.
Two things over the weekend have made me write this rant.
1. A lad I used to work with was stopped by the police on a Sat night a few months ago. No insurance. What did he get? £300 fine. Oh. Cheaper than the £1k premium he would have had to paid.
2. My neighbours car was written off when a car reversed into a wall at speed, wall collapsed on car = squashed car. Not only could this have been a lot worse if someone had been standing their but the driver was uninsured....and is blaming the WALL for not being constructed properly!
Neighbour now faces a struggle to get an insurance payout for the guilty party....
Am I being unresonable? Are there so many other issues I am overlooking?
Sorry for the rant, i'm sure its been done before!
When I have paid in no less than 3 years well over £2.5k in insurance premiums it boils my pi55 to think how many people drive without it and even more so when they get a measly fine when caught.
When are the govt going to realise that the punishment must be more severe than the savings of not insuring your car? Its not rocket science FFS.
What? They can afford the fine? BAN THEM! A car is a luxury not a right, if you cant afford to buy/tax/insure a car DONT HAVE ONE.
Two things over the weekend have made me write this rant.
1. A lad I used to work with was stopped by the police on a Sat night a few months ago. No insurance. What did he get? £300 fine. Oh. Cheaper than the £1k premium he would have had to paid.
2. My neighbours car was written off when a car reversed into a wall at speed, wall collapsed on car = squashed car. Not only could this have been a lot worse if someone had been standing their but the driver was uninsured....and is blaming the WALL for not being constructed properly!
Neighbour now faces a struggle to get an insurance payout for the guilty party....
Am I being unresonable? Are there so many other issues I am overlooking?
Sorry for the rant, i'm sure its been done before!
I was in the magistrates court last week and a bloke, after being caught without insurance, without a license was fined £105 including costs and had 3 points added to his non existant license! He was asked to pay it back @ £5 per week. 
It just takes the piss, I've paid £2,500 in insurance in the last 2 years!
It just takes the piss, I've paid £2,500 in insurance in the last 2 years!
Muncher said:
I was in the magistrates court last week and a bloke, after being caught without insurance, without a license was fined £105 including costs and had 3 points added to his non existant license! He was asked to pay it back @ £5 per week.
It just takes the piss, I've paid £2,500 in insurance in the last 2 years!
And how many more examples of this are happening everyday across the country?!
£105 and 3 points for no insurance
£60 and 3 points for 80mph down a motorway
Nice.
It sucks, agreed. If your not happy then don't pay it take the chance with the rest of them just hope that no one crashes into you.
This is an argument often presented in the general aviation world. At the moment insurance is not required for your own private plane, you can legally fly without.
With streamlining rules & regs and other euro nonsesense it has been put forward that all pilots must have at least 3rd party insurance, in Europe at least.
I know many people who are up in arms at this, "Pah, insurance", "Me, a liability?" I have heard them all and these people are not scrotes who dodge around using fake MOT's these are people who own their own planes.
This is an argument often presented in the general aviation world. At the moment insurance is not required for your own private plane, you can legally fly without.
With streamlining rules & regs and other euro nonsesense it has been put forward that all pilots must have at least 3rd party insurance, in Europe at least.
I know many people who are up in arms at this, "Pah, insurance", "Me, a liability?" I have heard them all and these people are not scrotes who dodge around using fake MOT's these are people who own their own planes.
agent006 said:
I read that now the maximum fine for no insurance has been reduced to £200.
REDUCED?!!
AAAAHHHHHHHH
And they think that the number of uninsured drivers has just crept past the 1m mark
What happends in countries where insurance is not required (like the aviation world?). In NZ you are not required to have insurance....so what happend when you have a prang? I pressume you just cough up for the damage if it was deemed to be your fault?
sausagepilot said:
A 12 month ban would be about in order I think
If they're prepared to drive without insurance, they'll not flinch at the prospect of driving without a license.
First offence should result in a fine double the const of what the insurance would have been.
Second offence should be triple the const of insurance and 2 months in prison.
Really simple solution to this one guys - Enact legislation to require all insurance policies give you a unique bar-code window sticker. Traffic wardens get bar code readers (about the size of mobile phones). Cars without valid bar-codes get towed and crushed; no excuses, no exceptions, no come-back.
All you need is a Govt with the will to do it - and don't be conned by the idea that its not a big issue, vehicle insurance fraud costs hundreds of millions of pounds a year and, at the moment, those of us who do pay for our insurance are footing the bill
All you need is a Govt with the will to do it - and don't be conned by the idea that its not a big issue, vehicle insurance fraud costs hundreds of millions of pounds a year and, at the moment, those of us who do pay for our insurance are footing the bill
Clapham993 said:
Really simple solution to this one guys - Enact legislation to require all insurance policies give you a unique bar-code window sticker. Traffic wardens get bar code readers (about the size of mobile phones). Cars without valid bar-codes get towed and crushed; no excuses, no exceptions, no come-back.
All you need is a Govt with the will to do it - and don't be conned by the idea that its not a big issue, vehicle insurance fraud costs hundreds of millions of pounds a year and, at the moment, those of us who do pay for our insurance are footing the bill
Make them like the ones that your mobile phone box has, so that they're tamper proof too. Or every side window will get put through for the scrotes to nick them.
Clapham993 said:
Really simple solution to this one guys - Enact legislation to require all insurance policies give you a unique bar-code window sticker. Traffic wardens get bar code readers (about the size of mobile phones). Cars without valid bar-codes get towed and crushed; no excuses, no exceptions, no come-back.
All you need is a Govt with the will to do it - and don't be conned by the idea that its not a big issue, vehicle insurance fraud costs hundreds of millions of pounds a year and, at the moment, those of us who do pay for our insurance are footing the bill
I like that idea
, as you said though it will take a govt with balls to do such a drastic thing. Many good threads. I've caught scores of people without insurance over the years. I cannot agree more how depressing it is, when I get the court result to find he/she got a fine of £100.
I recall a conversation I had with a Traffic Management Officer (Trafpol admin/advisory type job) who said that in Southamnpton, a RTA would occur almost every day involving an uninsured driver. One would occur every week, where neither party was insured. Depressing isn't it?
The answer? I find myself reverting to this soapbox in response to numerous threads, but, here I go again...
Each local authority, should have to run a car pound. Between the Police, CSOs, Traffic Wardens, Council Wardens etc... any car found, in whatever circs. without insurance, VEL, MOT, found unattended on a road with "no current keeper" or where the owner has not notified the DVLC of ownership - these cars should be taken to the pound. Owner is liable for the tow away and storage. Owner only gets the car back when he shows pukker ID, evidence of his address, e.g. utility bill etc... the V5 in his name at the given address, current insurance, MOT and VEL. And offences disclosed when recovering the car would lead to owner being reported for summons.
I don't think there is a need for windscreen insurance discs or barcodes. Insurance info. is already on PNC and MOT info. should be in the near future.
I recall a conversation I had with a Traffic Management Officer (Trafpol admin/advisory type job) who said that in Southamnpton, a RTA would occur almost every day involving an uninsured driver. One would occur every week, where neither party was insured. Depressing isn't it?
The answer? I find myself reverting to this soapbox in response to numerous threads, but, here I go again...
Each local authority, should have to run a car pound. Between the Police, CSOs, Traffic Wardens, Council Wardens etc... any car found, in whatever circs. without insurance, VEL, MOT, found unattended on a road with "no current keeper" or where the owner has not notified the DVLC of ownership - these cars should be taken to the pound. Owner is liable for the tow away and storage. Owner only gets the car back when he shows pukker ID, evidence of his address, e.g. utility bill etc... the V5 in his name at the given address, current insurance, MOT and VEL. And offences disclosed when recovering the car would lead to owner being reported for summons.
I don't think there is a need for windscreen insurance discs or barcodes. Insurance info. is already on PNC and MOT info. should be in the near future.
Deester said:
It sucks, agreed. If your not happy then don't pay it take the chance with the rest of them just hope that no one crashes into you.
This is an argument often presented in the general aviation world. At the moment insurance is not required for your own private plane, you can legally fly without.
With streamlining rules & regs and other euro nonsesense it has been put forward that all pilots must have at least 3rd party insurance, in Europe at least.
I know many people who are up in arms at this, "Pah, insurance", "Me, a liability?" I have heard them all and these people are not scrotes who dodge around using fake MOT's these are people who own their own planes.
It's the same in the boat world, fortunately to get a permit more and more authorities are insisting that boats over a certain size are insured. Only a couple of months ago my dad was in court as expert witness in a case where the defendant was pissed and driving an uninsured 20foot speed boat (nothing illegal in that apparently) at high speed. He lost control and went straight through the middle of another boat. A young boy watched his brother and dad get killed in front of him.
Not sure if he has been sentanced but he's looking at manslaughter.
bga said:
It sucks, agreed. If your not happy then don't pay it take the chance with the rest of them just hope that no one crashes into you.
This is an argument often presented in the general aviation world. At the moment insurance is not required for your own private plane, you can legally fly without.
With streamlining rules & regs and other euro nonsesense it has been put forward that all pilots must have at least 3rd party insurance, in Europe at least.
I know many people who are up in arms at this, "Pah, insurance", "Me, a liability?" I have heard them all and these people are not scrotes who dodge around using fake MOT's these are people who own their own planes.
It's the same in the boat world, fortunately to get a permit more and more authorities are insisting that boats over a certain size are insured. Only a couple of months ago my dad was in court as expert witness in a case where the defendant was pissed and driving an uninsured 20foot speed boat (nothing illegal in that apparently) at high speed. He lost control and went straight through the middle of another boat. A young boy watched his brother and dad get killed in front of him.
Not sure if he has been sentanced but he's looking at manslaughter.
Boat insurance is a salutory lesson in where car insurance is going to go if this problem isn't gripped. At the moment there is no law requiring any form of insurance for pleasure vessels (and no compulsory training required to use them either, but that's another rant....) The number of yachting related accidents and clams by people who do carry comprehensive insurance for their vessels because the accident was caused by, and the fault of, someone without insurance has risen to the extent that in certain areas yacht insurance is virtually unobtainable in the insurance market
james_j said:
If it makes you feel any better(!), we are probably paying for the non-insured in our premiums.
Oh, and the government wants to means-test motoring-related fines (like speeding) to pay for those who don't pay their fines.
Means the scrotes will be let off with nothing, whereas someone in the higher tax band gets fined £££££
This is the motoring issue that makes me most annoyed. I am behind ANY politician who does anything about reducing the number of uninsured drivers on the roads. (I am told that about 8% of drivers UK are uninsured, and this rises to about 40% of drivers in London.)
I have been hit from behind by two uninsured drivers in the last 4 years. Both admitted liability. One admitted ON THE SPOT that he didn't have insurance, gave me false details and buggered off. Plod haven't seen hide nor hair of him since. The second is due in court in 2 weeks time for driving without insurance, licence or MOT. What are the odds of him actually showing up? Fcuk all.
The MOST annoying bit is the piss-poor efforts of my insurance company and the police in tracing either of these scrotes. They seem to take the view that as I have insurance, I can afford to take the hit. "Oh, so that's your excess (£150), a days wages to sort it all out (£300), telephone, post etc (£20), plus the increase in your premium (£? - a few hundred?) - I'm sorry to hear that sir, but we are doing all we can to combat this sort of thing, sir." Like hell you are. My Legal Claims company (part of the car insurance) have effectively decided to do nothing about this second case. Why? Because the other party hasn't replied to any of their letters. I have to say, if I could get away without paying my bills that easily I most certainly would. Utterly pathetic.
The other infuriating thing is that I BET I could spot the uninsured drivers a mile off. Let's put this tactfully, but people who are not of UK origin, driving either beat-up Nissans OR penis-extension BMW's with more noise than Knebworth and precious little regard for road rules seem to be ignored by the few BiB's who are left patrolling our roads.
It truly, truly sickens me. What can we do about it? (That is a serious question. Is there anything we CAN do about it, or are we just whinging vacuously to each other?)
Oli.
I have been hit from behind by two uninsured drivers in the last 4 years. Both admitted liability. One admitted ON THE SPOT that he didn't have insurance, gave me false details and buggered off. Plod haven't seen hide nor hair of him since. The second is due in court in 2 weeks time for driving without insurance, licence or MOT. What are the odds of him actually showing up? Fcuk all.
The MOST annoying bit is the piss-poor efforts of my insurance company and the police in tracing either of these scrotes. They seem to take the view that as I have insurance, I can afford to take the hit. "Oh, so that's your excess (£150), a days wages to sort it all out (£300), telephone, post etc (£20), plus the increase in your premium (£? - a few hundred?) - I'm sorry to hear that sir, but we are doing all we can to combat this sort of thing, sir." Like hell you are. My Legal Claims company (part of the car insurance) have effectively decided to do nothing about this second case. Why? Because the other party hasn't replied to any of their letters. I have to say, if I could get away without paying my bills that easily I most certainly would. Utterly pathetic.
The other infuriating thing is that I BET I could spot the uninsured drivers a mile off. Let's put this tactfully, but people who are not of UK origin, driving either beat-up Nissans OR penis-extension BMW's with more noise than Knebworth and precious little regard for road rules seem to be ignored by the few BiB's who are left patrolling our roads.
It truly, truly sickens me. What can we do about it? (That is a serious question. Is there anything we CAN do about it, or are we just whinging vacuously to each other?)
Oli.
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