Conviction car insurance is a key part of the motor industry. According to figures released by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) in March 2017, 220 people died, 1,160 were seriously injured and there was a total of more than 8,000 casualties as a result of drink-drive accidents in 2015 (the most recent year for which statistics are available).
Although the figures represent a considerable reduction in such accidents over the past few decades, RoSPA reports that more than 70,000 motorists every year are still caught driving over the legal limit.
The cost of accidents
In addition to the human grief and suffering caused by traffic accidents involving drunk drivers, motor insurers are also concerned about the financial cost.
For this, insurers might turn to statistics published by the Department for Transport (and last updated on the 28th of September 2017), which estimate that every fatal accident costs more than an estimated £2 million in total, every serious accident costs an average of £237,527, the average accident involving only slight or minor injuries costs nearly £25,000, and the average damage-only accident costs £2,211.
Conviction car insurance
The financial risks to insurers of drivers being involved in an accident are therefore substantial.
Rightly or wrongly, insurers also take the view that drivers who have committed motoring offences in the past (as evidenced by their record of convictions, including drink driving), are more likely to be involved in costly accidents in the future.
The result is that you are likely to find it difficult to secure the motor insurance you need if you have driving convictions of any kind, but drink driver car insurance
in particular. Any insurer might simply reject your application out of hand or charge a disproportionate price in premiums.
GSI Insurance
Here at GSI Insurance, we take a somewhat more practical view and recognise that, in this day and age, the majority of people may still need to drive even after the penalty of a motoring conviction for some offence or other. They still need motor insurance, therefore, and this might extend to drink driver car insurance.
It is not that we support drinking and driving in any way – we recently carried news relaying advice from the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) to remain tee-total if you are intending to drive. But we are still realistic and recognise that – sooner rather than later – you are going to need to drive again after any kind of motoring conviction.
Drink driving convictions alone may attract up to nine different types of endorsement on your driving licence – and that’s before you’ve begun to count the possible endorsements for a host of other motoring offences. Get enough penalty points and endorsements on your licence, of course, and you are suspended from driving – for any period the courts see fit.
Although we are unable to promise any conviction car insurance cover whilst you are still off the roads, as soon as you return, we are ready and waiting to speedily arrange the motor insurance you need – whatever the motoring convictions might have been.
