'One in five' young drivers uninsured

andyrules

BenL wrote: »

The figure of 1 in 5 was extrapolated from data held by the reports authors MIB for accidents/claims in the last 6 years (i think he said 6)

I heard the spokesman on Radio 5 yesterday.

This is nothing new, 10 years ago I was 18 with my 1st car and it cost £1200 a year to insure.

A 3 year old Ford KA 1.3.

No special treatment required for these passing drivers, new drivers from at least the last 10 years have had big premiums when you start out.

There was a soundbite from a new driver who said along the lines of "£1200 to insure my £500 Fiesta - I'm not going to bother"

The MIB guy reminded listeners that the insurance is primarily for other peoples cars and injuries he will likely cause.

Premiums are high for a reason, any 18 year old will know quite a few people from school who have written off their own and/or parents cars quickly after passing their test.

yes, so true. I do have an issue with insurers here and young drivers. When we went through the pain of finding some for DS, they advised him to get an old wreck as it would be cheaper. Now he was driving a decent small car with good ncap rating which would, you assume, afford better protection for him and passengers. I can't help thinking that a 'wreck' would push up claims for personal injuries, which would surely be much more costly than the difference between the couple of grand between repairing/writing off wreck and newer car!

pineapple123

Lets not forget not all uninsured drivers are young drivers with high premiums.

I think this figure 1 in 5 could refer to most age groups driving either without insurance, roadworthy car, tax or a licence.

There is noway round it if you want to drive you have to pay the high premiums.
Sorry but responsibility comes down to parents again.
As a parent with a child learning to drive and insurance of over £1200 my daughter has been encouraged to work during the holidays to raise some of this money.

She has been warned by me not to get into some of her friends cars that are uninsured and she wont, even if it means waiting for me to pick her up or paying for a bus home.

Pee

The figures show that most uninsured drivers were in the younger category. There are surely several reasons for this - one of the reasons I do not try to avoid paying £300 for car insurance is that I own a house and should I be found liable for an accident, could lose said house paying compensation. Therefore if car insurance wasn't compulsory, I would still have it.

Most people do have an accident or near accident quite soon after passing their test - this is probably the thirty seconds in which you learn the most about driving!

You would have thought with car tax, all cars would have to be insured. Maybe car tax should be renewed monthly or three monthly. For most people this could be by phone or internet with the insurance and MOT checked automatically, and anyone who could bear to deal with the Post Office taxing vehicles could also support their local Post Office.

It might be an idea if speed cameras were changed to become insurance cameras!

andyrules

Pee wrote: »

The figures show that most uninsured drivers were in the younger category. There are surely several reasons for this - one of the reasons I do not try to avoid paying £300 for car insurance is that I own a house and should I be found liable for an accident, could lose said house paying compensation. Therefore if car insurance wasn't compulsory, I would still have it.

Most people do have an accident or near accident quite soon after passing their test - this is probably the thirty seconds in which you learn the most about driving!

You would have thought with car tax, all cars would have to be insured. Maybe car tax should be renewed monthly or three monthly. For most people this could be by phone or internet with the insurance and MOT checked automatically, and anyone who could bear to deal with the Post Office taxing vehicles could also support their local Post Office.

It might be an idea if speed cameras were changed to become insurance cameras!

I think that many of the uninsured don't have tax either.
I like the idea of the speed cameras, I assume that's done when flashed for speeding, but that's all.

I've just taxed ours in the PO, was easy enough as long as they stop reducing services. It's good if you miss that window between getting your reference number and leaving 5 days for it to arrive through the post!!