LARSOA calls on Police to crush more cars and help save lives
Last year 50,000 cars were seized by police because they were not ‘street legal’ and 20,000 of those met the crusher but the Local Authority Road Safety Officers’ Association is calling on the police to get rid of more.
Unlicensed and uninsured motorists are ten times more likely to be involved in other traffic related crimes, six times more likely to have been convicted of driving a non-roadworthy vehicle and ten times more likely to have a drink driving conviction.
A staggering one in 20 drivers are uninsured – out of 34m drivers in the UK that amounts to 1.7m but how many vehicles are seized and crushed varies hugely according to each individual police force.
In Manchester since police were given the legal powers to confiscate vehicles 18 months ago - 40,000 were seized and 14,500 were for not having insurance. 40% of these were subsequently crushed. In Hampshire 20,000 were taken and Cleveland Police have pledged a new major campaign to seize 2,000 cars in the next 12 months.
Simon Ettinghausen, chair of LARSOA, says: “Motorists who are uninsured and unlicensed are a direct threat to law-abiding drivers. They are almost ten times more likely to be involved in a collision and that leaves other motorists extremely vulnerable.
“We want to see the police seizing more of these cars and disposing of them to make the country’s roads safer for everyone.”
Police have to hold cars for seven days but some forces offer 14 days for the owner to remedy the fault and then reclaim before they are crushed. However, this has created problems of storage space.
Susan Beck, Head of Communications at the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB), adds: “I’m sure the Metropolitan Police could fill Wembley Stadium many times over a year if they were to seize all the uninsured and unlicensed vehicles in the force area but the more that can be seized the better. Since the police have had these powers we have seen a drop in claims against uninsured drivers – it’s just under 5% which is encouraging at this stage.”
The Motor Insurance Bureau runs the Motor Insurance Database (MID) where vehicles are registered once a policy is taken out and there are an increasing number of enquiries from police. This illustrates that more cars are now being identified and pulled over with roadside cameras using number plate recognition technology.
Simon adds: “The more the illegal cars the police confiscate, the clearer the message to these illegal motorists that they won’t be tolerated and the roads will be safer for all of us.
