Insurance Hazards of Uninsured Drivers
What are the risks of uninsured drivers?
- They look upon car insurance as a grudge purchase they can ill afford
- Uninsured drivers face life-changing financial disaster if involved in a serious smash
- Drivers with insurance are paying for those who don’t have insurance
- Vehicle hijackings in South Africa should provide enough evidence of the importance of the risks of going without vehicle insurance
- Compensation for high accident tolls fall on insured drivers and their insurance companies. Often these cannot recover costs from uninsured drivers
- Unemployment and poverty has seen a spike in defaults on monthly vehicle policy payments
Car insurance costs are already looked upon as a grudge purchase, and now with the surge in claims made by victims of uninsured drivers, they are set to increase further, causing more stress. is being blamed for adding to already high car insurance costs.
Uninsured Drivers a World-Wide Concern
- In South Africa, more than 11 million cars head out onto the roads without any car insurance. This is according to the Automobile Association of South Africa. These drivers could face serious financial bills if involved in an accident.
- According to the Motor Insurer’s Bureau (MIB), in the UK, there are about one million uninsured drivers on the roads. That makes it one in every 38 cars without insurance.
- In the United States, more than 12% of all drivers are uninsured. Factors contributing to this number includes economic battles, illegal immigration and rising cost of insurance premiums. Uninsured drivers on American roads are increasing rapidly. In South Africa, the UK and the USA, the numbers are increasing every day.
Apart from traffic check-points, Automatic License Plate Recognition Systems is operational in the USA. That allows police to find uninsured drivers. Police are able to determine whether a car is properly insured simply by looking at its number plate.
In the United States, drivers with insurance are ultimately paying for the risks of those who don’t have insurance. According to the Insurance Research Council (IRC), the total bill for drivers is about $12 billion a year. Uninsured motorists add more than $60 a year on average to a policyholder’s bill. The average annual premium in 2014 was already more than $900.
In trying to find a solution to the problem, in Oklahoma, the state once had the highest percentage of uninsured drivers. They now have the lowest. Their solution? Oklahoma passed a law allowing law enforcement to remove the licences of uninsured vehicles, leaving both the driver and vehicle vulnerable and stranded.
High Insurance Costs the Culprit
Most people say that it’s the very cost of insurance that makes it impossible to insure your car. The costs are simply too high and insurers and underwriters aren’t able to recover much of the damages caused by guilty, uninsured 3rd party drivers. But then again, if your car has been damaged, you’ll only be reimbursed if you have your own collision coverage.
It is annoying for insured drivers to know that they are actually paying a portion of the costs for other drivers – those uninsured ones – that choose to disobey the law.
Arrive Alive in South Africa has said that vehicle hijackings alone should provide enough evidence of the importance of vehicle insurance. An increase in vehicle theft as well as rising repair costs is making insurance companies recalculate the risk and cost of insuring vehicles.
Yes car insurance is getting more expensive in South Africa, the UK and the United States as well as other countries of the world. In some countries, car insurance is mandatory, but in South Africa it’s not, and the millions of uninsured drivers are proof of that.
Basic Insurance Reduces the Risks
The cost of being involved in an accident without insurance can be devastating, and it is far more economical to buy the very basic insurance than to fork out thousands of Rand on repairs. If you think that car insurance is too high, there are a number of things you can do save on car insurance rates so that it can be far more affordable. Take out Third Party, Fire and Theft insurance, for instance.
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All info was correct at time of publishing November 9, 2017