Vehicle Destruction May Be Ultimate Sanction for Uninsured U.K. Drivers

Concerned by the high percentage of accidents involving uninsured motorists, the British Government announced plans for a crackdown that could ultimately allow police to seize and eventually destroy the cars they drive.

According to reports from Reuters and the BBC, the U.K.’s Department for Transport will consider findings made by Professor David Greenaway of Nottingham University in a study commissioned in 2003. Accidents involving uninsured drivers are estimated to cost £500 million ($925 million) a year, which adds an additional £30 ($55) on average to insurance premiums.

The report recommends that drastic measures including larger fines, jail time and destruction of the uninsured motorist’s vehicle be adopted to reduce the losses. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimates that one in 20 U.K. motorists are uninsured at any one time, and that one in seven have driven without insurance at some time in the past.

“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, reported by Reuters. According to government statistics they 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.