Police May Destroy Cars of Uninsured Drivers
9 Nov 2004
LONDON (Reuters)- Police could be allowed to seize the cars of uninsured drivers and even destroy them under government plans announced on Wednesday for a crackdown on offending motorists.
The Department for Transport said it also planned to link the national vehicle register with insurance databases to identify uninsured vehicles and to introduce fines for people who ignored insurance renewal reminders.
It said accidents involving uninsured drivers cost more than 200 million pounds a year, adding up to 30 pounds a year to the insurance premium of each law-abiding motorist.
“We know that law-abiding motorists are fed up with paying the price for the small hard core of anti-social motorists who drive uninsured, often in untaxed or unsafe vehicles,“ Road Safety Minister David Jamieson said in a statement.
The government says uninsured drivers are 10 times more likely to have been convicted of drink driving, six times more likely to have been convicted of driving an unsafe vehicle and three times more likely to have been convicted of driving without due care and attention.
The Association of Chief Police Officers welcomed the proposals.
“Anti-social drivers are making people’s lives a misery generally,” said Richard Brunstrom, Chief Constable of North Wales Police.
“The fact that a lot of these drivers are also uninsured makes an already bad situation even worse.”
_____