£30 million a year saved by removing uninsured cars

Research by The Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) has revealed that the introduction of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) has resulted in 10% fewer accidents since 2006.

ANPR works by automatically reading the number plate of any car that passes by. It then searches a number of databases including the insurance bureaus database and alerts the police to any suspect cars.

The technology was original developed as a counter terrorism measure in London during the IRAs bombing campaign. Since then it has been widely adopted by the UK’s police forces.

A recent blitz has resulted in some 200,000 uninsured cars being taken off the road in two years.

The MIB said as a direct result of this there has been 10% fewer accidents since 2006-saving the Insurance industry £30 million a year.

Crazy people

A recent report revealed some worrying information, around 3.8million drivers put other road users at risk by not being able to see properly mainly because they think specs make them look ugly.

Unsurprisingly the worst offenders are women, some 14 million female motorists need glasses to meet the legal requirement of reading a car number plate at 70ft.

But one in four regularly drives without them — and one in five has had a crash or close shave within the past year as a result.

Incredibly one in 16 believes they are safe to get behind the wheel despite their poor vision.



The same report also named the most bizarre insurance claims recieved in a single year, so funny in fact that we just had to mention them.

A motorist called his insurance company after a camel kicked his car.

While another said his windscreen was melted by a crashing Harrier jet.

In another case, a car windscreen was shattered by a nut thrown by a squirrel.

One car was dented when a naked pedestrian ran across it for a joke.

And another claim came after a woman put shampoo in her tank thinking it was petrol.

Keep an eye on the kids

Children cause more than 850,000 accidents in the home every year and the resulting damage costs nearly £230 million.

According to new research young children are the number one cause of damage in their households, and are responsible for 42 per cent of all accidents.

It may be surprising to learn that teenagers are not the biggest culprits as far as causing accidents are concerned, they account for just one in five accidents around the home or 250,000 accidents a year, resulting in £68 million worth of damage.

With the summer holidays in full swing and the usual English summertime weather, school-age children will be in and around the home for most of the day. So parents are being warned to keep an eye on their clumsy kids.

And even those without kids can’t escape the damage they cause, because of the 850,000 accidents last year, 250,000 of them happened in someone else's home while visiting.

Funny insurance commercial