09/09/11
Lois Avery
An MP campaigning for cheaper car insurance has called for improved technology so police can catch more uninsured drivers.
Bradford East Liberal Democrat MP, David Ward, says if police had more access to the technology needed to tackle motorists driving without insurance then they’d have a better chance of reducing the number on our roads.
His comments came after he issued a report looking into the soaring cost of car insurance in Bradford.
In the past two years residents have suffered price rises of 62.8 per cent, more than anywhere else in the UK.
It’s widely accepted that dishonest drivers are a main contributory factor to the rising cost of motor cover and recent figures from the Association of British Insurers suggest they’re adding £30 extra a year to an average drivers premiums.
Speaking exclusively to Confused.com Ward said: “We have one district in particular that’s become top of the league for uninsured drivers, we call it the’ BD3 problem’.
“I get people saying to me ‘Us law-abiding motorists are paying for the dishonest ones’.
“I’d certainly like to improve the technology available to traffic police. I spent a day with them and at the moment only something like three out of six vehicles can detect uninsured drivers.”
What he recommends is more investment in number plate recognition technology, which can prosecute uninsured motorists.
“Allowing them [police] to have that technology would be a way of driving down these numbers of uninsured drivers.”
