Leading car insurance intermediary calls for change

The recent suggestion that all police forces are to introduce speed awareness courses, as an alternative to receiving penalty points, could dramatically reduce car insurance premiums for drivers caught speeding.

The courses, which already run in areas such as Humberside, have been proven to be effective with fewer than one in twelve of the drivers taking part re-offending. Other police forces offering such courses include Lancashire, Thames Valley and Avon & Somerset, but as yet there is no uniformity in the cost or content of the course and importantly drivers in other areas have little choice but to accept the penalty points and accompanying fines.

This is soon set to change with most police forces offering courses within a year and the A & A Group, a specialist in offering cost effective premiums for convicted drivers, welcomes the move.

Until then however the situation is that some drivers who are given the option of attending a course, rather than receiving penalty points, may have to travel hundreds of miles in order to take part.

The A & A Group, calls for the adoption of a nationwide policy to be introduced as soon as possible, so it is available to all. This will keep more drivers on the road thus reducing insurance premiums of those who have been caught speeding, but more importantly will lead to a much lower rate of repeat offenders and mean that every driver is treated consistently, wherever they are in the country.

Under the present system, which operates in areas running the scheme, drivers prosecuted for speeding are offered the option of taking part in a speed awareness course at a cost of £60; the cost of a fixed penalty. Drivers will only qualify for the course if they have exceeded the speed limit by 10 per cent plus 2 mph which is based on Acpo's (the association of chief police officers) level for enforcement.

Tony Allen, Chief Executive of the A & A Group commented: "There are currently 6,000 fixed and mobile camera sites in Britain. In 2003 alone, over 33,000 drivers were disqualified for reaching the 12 point limit. Currently over 40 per cent of drivers now have points on their licence. Any measure therefore that can decrease the risk of repeat offending will keep some of these drivers on the road and importantly will show them where they were making mistakes before.

"In our experience many drivers are caught by a speed camera as a result of a momentary lapse of concentration rather than being habitual offenders and it is important that such individuals are given every opportunity to keep as clean a licence as possible and so keep their car insurance premiums at a minimum."

Tony Allen continued: "Car insurance premiums can rise dramatically for drivers with six penalty points or more, even through a specialist such as ourselves. The idea that drivers may now have the option to take part in a speed awareness course means that not only will they not accumulate points in the event of an offence, but intermediaries such as ourselves would be willing to take such a course into consideration as a further means of reducing their car insurance premium."

Source - http://www.carpages.co.uk/news

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