Whats the Penalty for not driving with insurance in your conutry?

[Lids]

I was watching fast 'n' loud the other day and they had a mustang written off due to somebody jumping a red light and totalling their car.  The driver of this SUV had no insurance and so the guys had to take a $50k hit.

What would be the outcome if this happened where you are from?

In the uk this is what could happen:

If you’re caught driving a vehicle you’re not insured to drive, the police could give you a fixed penalty of £200 and 6 penalty points. (12 needed to be disqualified)

If the case goes to court you could get:

    a maximum fine of £5,000
    disqualified from driving

The police also have the power to seize, and in some cases, destroy the vehicle that’s being driven uninsured.

[dragvw2180]

In North Carolina USA they hang you up by your thumbs and castrate you. I carry a " Under/non insured " policy so under no circumstances should I be left holding the bag for someone elses mistakes. This happened to a family friend , the non insured drunk person with illegal license plates who caused the accident decided to go back south of the border . After years of suffering and losing everything they worked for all their lives she passed away leaving 3 kids and a loving husband. Mike McCarthy

[karl h]

no legal chance of getting a licence plate without insurance in austria

[dragvw2180]

  Here you can pay your first months payment then cancel it after you get the plate or steal one , the insurance company automatically notifies the Department of Transportation . The only way you will get busted is if a police officer runs a plate check ( and they have the insurance info). It sucks but some people always got to do the wrong thing. There is a substancial penalty if you are honest but most times its hard to penalise a crook.  Mike

[mg]

I was watching fast 'n' loud the other day and they had a mustang written off due to somebody jumping a red light and totalling their car.  The driver of this SUV had no insurance and so the guys had to take a $50k hit.

What would be the outcome if this happened where you are from?

Typically good USA insurance includes un-insured driver coverage.
The Mustang's insurance would pay to fix the Mustang.
Then the Mustang's insurance company would go after the uninsured driver to recover all costs.
So in this case the penalty could be a $50k judgment against the uninsured SUV driver.

Court fines or loss of driving privileges would be less significant than the lawsuit from the insurance company.
Uninsured drivers at fault in an accident do leave the country to escape prosecution, just because they had no car insurance.
So the penalty is much greater than just court fines.

[dragvw2180]

 The insurance company is lucky if they can recoup any money , most times the people without insurance are financially handicapped ( no house no property to put a lein on ) so the most that the insurance companies get is a cancellation of the persons drivers license privileges until restitution of the money.  Then they go back out and drive without a license and no insurance  again with illegal plates . I do not remember anyone going to prison for no insurance ?

[JIMP]

About Greece in accordance with the last law of about one month

If they find out that the car is not insuranced by searching on the files -not on street- you get a penalty of 250,ooEuros if you go in 8 days to pay for the insurance, if you don't you get a penalty of 250,00Euros for a bike, 500,00Euros for a car and 1000,00Euros for the trucks which comes home

If they catch you on the street then they get from you driving permission, vehicle papers and plates for 10 days in which you should get the insurance else you pay also the above penalty. If you run on a colision then they get vehicle papers and plates for two years! if you have done it already then for three years. I dont know though what happens in the courts

Friendly

Dimitrios

[jaqo]

In Poland its almost 1k euro (2 times the minimum salary) if your car is uninsured for more than 2 weeks - and they do have a computer system that checks that so you don't have to be caught by the police to get a fine. The worst thing is that you have to have insurance even if your car is not on the road, for example when it's under restoration. But from the other hand car insurance is cheap - I pay like 90 euro a year for my fiat 126p with a beetle 2332cc engine.

[DWL_Puavo]

In Finland you get your insurance in the same time than you get your yearly MoT, straight from the MoT office to your desired insurance company.

If caught without insurance or without taxes paid (or yearly MoT exceeded), police takes your licence plates off. Some of the police vehicles has already automatic licence plate cameras with OCR in their cars, and they also instantly check insurance and taxes online. Otherwise they are checked manually in patrol cars, and at least every time that police stops you for speeding, traffic lights etc.

Fines are compared your previous years income, what I found with quick googling, they are usually from 6 to 10 days salarys worth. Supposedly it doesn't go into one's criminal record. Not sure what happens to your driving licence, but at least it's not taken staight away if you don't have previous traffic crimes.

If taxes are not paid, the minimum additional tax is 1000 euros added to your not-paid taxes.

I couldn't find trustworthy examples of what happens if you cause an accident with non-insured vehicle. They always go into court, and native finnish people supposedly never escape their country.

Here you can also put your car under a "vehicle have been taken off the road" -status (and it really is "off road" in english versions of the papers!), then you don't have to pay taxes and insurance costs go down.

And what is the best part of this all - you can do everything on internet with the exception of actual MoT. No need to go to insurance companies, tax office, traffic registers etc. Insurance and taxes are based on co2 levels, for example my 1.6 petrol golf with the best insurance available, takes about 600euros with taxes per year now that i have "full bonuses" in insurance that are gained by not being in accidents for years.

[RichardinNZ]

It isn't mandatory to have insurance in New Zealand and until recently you could drive at 15; now 16. As a result you get young drivers with Skylines, Altezzas and various turbos!

Richard

[RIP356]

No insurance required in Australia and some states dont have anything like a yearly test or MOT

[Fastbrit]

No insurance required in Australia and some states dont have anything like a yearly test or MOT

Remind me not to drive in Australia. That's scary.

[j-f]

In Belgium, if you are caught without insurance your car is blocked until you have paid it. The same if you don't pay your taxes or get a valid MoT. You also are insured against non insured driver. If fact, they increased the insurance prices to create a fund that is used to compensate the victims of an accident with an uninsured driver. Once again, these are honest people who respect the rules of the game pay for others.

[Rennsurfer]

Why, on God's green Earth, would anyone in their right mind even consider driving a car without insurance? I've been driving since 1979 and have always had insurance.

 

[j-f]

Why, on God's green Earth, would anyone in their right mind even consider driving a car without insurance? I've been driving since 1979 and have always had insurance.

 

Because people just don't care.

[Simpsonshoe]

Why, on God's green Earth, would anyone in their right mind even consider driving a car without insurance? I've been driving since 1979 and have always had insurance.

 

Because people just don't care.

Although California is one of the trailblazers when it comes to really stupid, and onerous laws, our foolish legislature has not yet gotten so far out of round that they penalize one for not driving with insurance. Call me old fashioned, but for once I agree with Boxer, Finestien et al..... I don't think there  should be a penalty for not driving with insurance..

[dragvw2180]

 So if a member of your family got hit by an uninsured negligent driver and required 24/7 assistance the rest of their life you would just shrug your shoulders and say that was ok ?  I think a minimum insurance requirement law is completely rational and do not feel I should suffer financially for someone elses mistakes . Also if you cannot afford insurance then more than likely you cannot afford to maintain your vehicle in a safe operating condition. Mike McCarthy

[RIP356]

In Australia, your yearly registration or Tax fee includes third party bodily insurance so if you injure someone or yourself you or they are covered.
It does not cover vehicles or other items, like if you hit a light pole etc.
I have full insurance on all my vehicles but it is not a legal requirement.
I have a cousin who purchased a new car, he was going to get insurance that night(fool he should have got it before he picked the car up)
He was hit by an unemployed person and both cars were written off.
He went to court and they ordered the other person to pay him $5 per week, my cousin still had a $20,000 loan on his car and had to pay that off.
Insurance should be mandatory.

[Simpsonshoe]

Sorry, Mike and everyone else.. I think what I said was taken wrong.. Go read the header again.. I think there should be stiff penalties for driving without insurance, or having someway to pay for causing untold damage to life and property..being most of us are not in the Waltons or Gates neighborhood, money is the only fair and equitable way to compensate.. The reason we carry insurance in the first place... If you have insurance, and don't drive? I think that is OK...

[Lids]

Another problem we now have in Europe is cross border insurance, or rather the lack of it.  You might be insured to drive in the UK, but upon entering France you are no longer insured.

You must check your policies, this is a huge problem in London with (for want of a better word) foreign drivers using their own vehicles, thinking they are insured, but in fact they are not.  Or they know they are not insured but because they have foreign plates they believe they will not get caught.