Direct Line, a leading provider of car insurance, has asked that the new careless driving law should also encompass those drivers who are uninsured.
The new law, which came into force today, means drivers can be charged with death by careless driving, with a maximum penalty of 5 years in jail. Drivers who cause death through driving without car insurance, having no licence or having been disqualified face up to two years in jail according to Direct Line.
A spokeswoman from Direct Line felt that this situation should be reviewed as a matter of urgency since it appears somewhat unfair that the person who is breaking more laws gets a lesser sentence than the more law abiding one.
A new report from Green Flag shows that we are spending more time than ever before simply waiting – be it in a traffic jam, in a shop queue or for a delivery.
The report reveals we spend around six months of our life just waiting! It seems over a third of the people asked spend over and hour a week waiting in queues at shops and supermarkets. Add in waiting at service organisations, especially banks, and that figure rises to almost two hours.
We are all familiar with waiting in traffic, from the school run delays in the morning, through shopping traffic and the often disrupted motorway journeys. These can be infuriating but Green flag do advocate a policy of not getting stressed to avoid ill health and accidents.
A traffic queue can sometime lead people to drive more aggressively to get out of it, or into a space, but the upshot of that is they may then have to make a claim on their car insurance, which will cost them far more than the time they spent waiting.
Technology is not always right is the message being sent out by car insurance companies such as Direct Line, suggesting drivers should not take the advice of the system blindly.
There have been many occasions when drivers have followed the route given to them by a sat-nav system only to find themselves heading down narrow farm tracks and through deep water. They carry on regardless though feeling that the satellite navigation system cannot be wrong. A big mistake say Direct Line since they have seen an increase in claims because of situations just like these.
If the situation continues then car insurance premiums are sure to rise, a scenario no one wants to see. Direct Line and other car insurance providers have to increase the premiums because of the extra costs they face so it is down to the drivers to make sure they use sat nav as an aid, trusting their own driving knowledge first and foremost.
