Tuesday 17 November 2009

" Green slip " failure !

The " Green slip " insurance scheme was supposed to provide compensation for those injured in accidents where the car at fault was not covered by liability insurance.

To access this safeguard certain provisions apply. The car must be legally registered - and the driver must hold a legal driving license.

In this recession we are seeing more and more unregistered cars - often with a driver who has had his or her license cancelled - detected by the police. In such instances the police merely remove the license plates from the vehicle, but do nothing to remove it from further use.

Damage to people or property caused by an unlicensed car or an unlicensed driver is not covered by the Green slip scheme. Unfortunately, in many cases this leaves the victim with catastrophic injuries and no hope of any form of compensation.

It would be in the interests of justice to remove as many unregistered vehicles as possible from the road - and removal of license plates does not guarantee that will happen. Plates are often stolen from other vehicles, and a visit to any wrecking yard or metal recycler will provide an unlimited supply.

There is no perfect answer to the unregistered car problem, but if each car so detected was automatically sent to the crusher and turned into scrap metal the numbers would certainly be reduced.

It would also be a deterrent to owners not to take a chance - and put the financial health of other road users at risk.

Anything that makes the Green slip insurance cover serve it's intended purpose is worth consideration !

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