Four in five motorists have called for a clampdown on uninsured drivers, who cause death and injury to thousands on the road every year and add around £33 to the policies of law-abiding drivers.
The hike in the fines uninsured drivers face from Friday of £100 to £300 is not tough enough, according to AA members.
Around one in 36 drivers are uninsured, according to the Motor Insurers' Bureau – or as many as one in five in inner cities. This makes the chances of being hit by one of these offenders higher than almost anywhere in Europe. This compares to only around one in 500 in Germany driving uninsured on the roads, while in Sweden the figure stands at about one in 1,000.
The offenders are often young men, who are likely to be loath to pay sky-high premiums for a policy, with a man aged between 17 and 22 with a clean license facing an average premium of £1,211 a year for car insurance.
Uninsured drivers kill an average of 116 people and injure 23,000 every year, according to research by charity Brake.
Eight out of 10 of nearly 20,000 members surveyed by the AA said that a £300 fine was insufficient, as it is not enough of a deterrent to guard against uninsured drivers. Three quarters said that six penalty points was also too lenient, while more than half wanted jail time and nearly two thirds electronic tagging as a punishment.
Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, said: "Uninsured drivers cost this country at least £380mevery year and add about £33 to the cost of every car insurance policy, quite apart from emergency services and court costs. Yet although the penalties are already severe, the current regime is clearly not a deterrent."
Repeat offenders face maximum fines of £5,000 but, because the levy is means-tested, the average charge is £299, the AA said, less than the new fixed penalty.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "We are determined to crack down on uninsured drivers, which is why we have made it harder to keep a vehicle with no insurance and why we have given the police additional powers to tackle offenders, including enabling them to seize vehicles at the roadside."
