LARSOA calls on Police to crush more cars and help save lives

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.

ABOUT LARSOA

LARSOA is a national road safety organisation representing road safety officers (RSOs) employed in local government across the UK.

LARSOA represents 185 of the 200 eligible local authorities across the UK, assisting RSOs to fulfil their statutory role to reduce the number and severity of road casualties through education, training and publicity programmes.

LARSOA publishes an up-to-date round-up of road safety news from across the UK on its website www.larsoa.org.uk .

LARSOA also aims to influence national debate - government policy and action together with public opinion. The association works to achieve national recognition for road safety issues, commissions research into behaviour which contributes to road collisions and develops national road safety campaigns.

The association assists in identifying achievable national targets to reduce the number of collisions on the country's roads.