The U.K. government should halve the amount lawyers receive for administering motor insurance claims for personal injury to control rising claims expenses, according to former Home Secretary Jack Straw.
“What we’ve got is unnecessary costs riding in the system,” Straw told Parliament’s Transport Committee today. Removing 600 pounds ($938) from the 1,200 pounds lawyers receive for processing claims would reduce “fat” in the industry, which has caused premiums to rise to record levels, he said.
Car insurers, claims management firms and brokers have been blamed by members of Parliament including Straw, for selling information about customers to no-win no-fee lawyers and car- rental firms, who then pursue claims from rival insurance companies. While the number of accidents has dropped, claims have risen, driving premiums up.
Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly said last month he intends to ban referral fees as part of an overhaul of the legal system. Straw, who has campaigned for the changes since June, wants the government to go further and reduce lawyers’ profits.
Insurers, lawyers and claims-management firms introduced a database last year to process personal injury claims known as the Road Traffic Accident Portal system. Straw said the system, which entitles lawyers to 1,200 pounds in administration fees, also helps fuel spurious claims. In Germany, lawyers are paid 300 euros ($409), according to the Association of British Insurers, the industry lobby group.
Dysfunctional System
U.K. insurers and brokers make about 800 pounds for referring each customer, meaning the practice made them about 320 million pounds in the past year, according to personal injury law firm Spencers Solicitors Ltd.
The ABI in November called the claims system “dysfunctional” because insurers help fuel a compensation culture that has forced the industry into an underwriting loss on motor insurance each year since 1996.
The amount paid in claims by insurance companies rose 28 percent to 10.3 billion pounds in 2010, according to data compiled by the ABI. The number of accidents on British roads fell 18 percent to 154,414 from 2006 to 2010, according to the Department for Transport.
That prompted the price of comprehensive motor insurance to soar 40 percent to about 900 pounds in the 12 months to March, according to the Automobile Association Ltd.’s Shoparound Index, which tracks the cheapest quotes.

A bus driver from Trowbridge has been sentenced to over two years in prison after he hit a 6 year old and his mother.

Mrs Connor and her six year old son Finlay had crossed the road opposite his school and walked between a car and the bus. In an unfortunate twist of fate, the car speed off and the bus driver then proceeded to pull forward and hit both Mrs Connor and her son resulting in her son’s death.

Shortly after Finlay’s death the courts heard the bus driver Mr Shearing, say the brakes had failed on the bus however, the bus had been checked and no defects were found.

His barrister said he is ‘an ordinary, hardworking family man, with no previous convictions’. It is believed that Mr Shearing suffered “sudden acceleration syndrome”, when the driver mistakenly presses the accelerator instead of the brake and can’t understand why the vehicle won’t stop.

He expressed his deepest sympathies to the family. The judge said it was an error of judgement however, the consequences come very high, a life has been lost and you must bear the responsibility.

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Texting or emailing while driving doubles reaction time and makes drivers more likely to miss a flashing light, according to new research.
In a small study, researchers at Texas A&M University’s Texas Transportation Institute studied the impact of texting in an actual driving environment.
“Essentially texting while driving doubles a driver’s reaction time,” said Christine Yager, who led the study.
“That makes a driver less able to respond to sudden roadway dangers.”
In the study, 42 drivers between the ages of 16 and 54 drove on a 17-kilometre test course while sending or receiving text messages, and again while focusing completely on the road.
The researchers asked the drivers to stop when they saw a flashing yellow light and recorded their reaction time.
The typical reaction time without texting was between one and two seconds, but while texting it increased to three to four seconds, regardless of whether the driver was typing or reading a text.
The researchers also found that a texting driver was 11 times more likely to miss the flashing light.
“The act of reading and writing a text message are equally impairing and equally dangerous,” she said.
The lag in reaction times was greater than in an earlier study conducted in a lab simulator.
Yager explained that the three to four second lag time is significant because at highway speeds a driver can travel the length of a football field in that time.
Texting drivers in the study were also more likely to swerve in their lane.
“We had participants strike barrels, and it is very scary to think that this is happening on our public roadways,” said Yager, adding the findings also apply to other distractions such as checking emails and Facebook.
Government statistics show distracted driving contributes to as much as 20 per cent of all fatal crashes. Cellphones are the main distraction.
Text messaging while driving is banned in 34 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. An additional seven states ban texting while driving for some motorists, such as those under 18 or bus drivers.

We all try and do our bit for the environment and with technology advancing it should be easy to reduce our carbon footprint when driving, but this doesn’t help us reduce our costs.

Most drivers cannot afford to buy a new car which is fitted out with all the latest technology. So much so that 6.8 million used cars were sold last year in comparison to just 2 million new cars.

Owners of older vehicles are being penalised and are charged much more road tax then new ‘green’ cars. But this does not seem a valid reason for charging more…as a ‘green’ car driven badly can be just as bad as a ‘non-green’ car that’s driven well.

The government are trying to encourage drivers to purchase new cars with the scrappage scheme, but it seems to end there are charging those who can’t afford to buy a new car a higher excise duty does not seem fair or a way of tackling the environmental problems our planet faces.

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A DEAF driver was “going too fast” when he lost control of his car and crashed it into a tree, killing his back seat passenger, a jury was told.
Stephen Hocknell had been driving home from work with his two pals, local footballer Callum MacKinnon and Peter Hayes, when he went too fast into a bend on a country road, Oxford Crown Court heard.
The 21-year-old, from Carterton, denies causing death by careless driving.
Despite hitting the brakes and frantically trying to steer the Citroen C3, it span out of his control and slammed side-on into a tree on September 7 last year.
Hocknell, who suffers profound deafness, and front-seat passenger Mr Hayes escaped with minor injuries, but Mr MacKinnon, 18, suffered the full impact.
Roger Coventry, prosecuting, told how Mr MacKinnon had been in the back seat on the left-hand side of the car as they drove back from the Burford Garden Centre, along the B4020 Shilton Road.
He said: “Stephen Hocknell drove carelessly. How was he careless? He drove too fast for the road, too fast for the type of car that he had.”
Investigators were unable to pinpoint the speed at which Hocknell had been driving but said skid marks showed he had been travelling ‘excessively fast’.
The trial continues.

The Highways Agency has introduced a strategy which is thought to save 810 tonnes of CO2 a year, and they plan to do this by removing motorway lights.

Since 2009, 14 stretches of motorway across the UK has seen their lights switched off between the hours of midnight and 5am and evidence so far indicated that this has had no impact on road safety.

The latest stretch of road to lose its lights is the M1, between junctions 10 and 13. The lights are being permanently removed, but the agency ensures drivers that slip-roads and junctions will stay well lit.

There has been some debate over the plans however, Steve Garrod – DIA group manager said “Headlights are better than ever and as long as signs stay well lit there should be no problems.”

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A recent survey carried out by a car insurance provider has found that a massive 90% of drivers admit to having broken the speed limit while travelling on UK roads.Only a tiny minority of those drivers polled by Autocar, just 3.5%, said they had never broken the maximum 70mph speed limit while driving on a British motorway, with 94.6% admitting that they knew they had driven over the limit had some point.Worryingly, 6.1% of drivers who took part in the research admitted that they regularly drive at 90mph on the motorway.Given the results of this survey into driving speeds, the news that transport secretary, Philip Hammond, is to launch a public consultation on raising the speed limit on motorways and dual carriageways to 80mph is especially timely and shows there is a strong case for raising the maximum speed limit.The survey also sought to gauge the public reaction to a possible increase in the speed limit, and two fifths of respondents revealed they would like to see the limit raised.Car insurance experts believe that given the results of the Autocar survey, the transport secretary’s decision to look into raising the speed limit on motorways will be especially popular with drivers. If the government do decide to go ahead with a maximum speed limit of 80mph, it’s not likely to come into force until 2012/13 at the earliest.

Research has found that 67% of UK drivers said they didn’t think they would pass a practical driving test is they had to re-sit it.

Bad habits such as being distracted by music and changing CD’s and stations, texting and using mobile phones (this tends to be younger respondents – aged 18-24), eating and drinking, and driving whilst tired all contributed to poor driving skills.

Yet, it is things such as checking mirrors, gear changes, giving way and speed that would trip up even the most experienced drivers on a practical driving test. Most experienced drivers slip into bad habits and have their own style of driving which more often than not would not be test standard.

Even more worryingly is for those drivers that passed their test before 1996. These drivers would not have sat a theory test, this could limit their knowledge of road marking and signs which in turn could endanger themselves and other road users if they have not kept themselves up-to-date.

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When something is obvious we are able to respond, i.e. when snow is on our roads, we adapt our driving however, what about the hazards autumn brings.

There is very little advice available to drivers about the hazards autumn brings, such as low sun, evenings becoming dark in the blink of an eye, strong winds, heavy rain, fallen leaves and poor visibility.

Many drivers will know the frustration of being dazzled by low sun, the sun visor does nothing, the windscreen looks filthy and you find it hard to see anything in front of you. Well keeping a pair of sunglasses in the car will help and ensuring that the windscreen is free from dirt on both the inside and the outside, this also means ensuring your window screen wash is topped up.

Leaves on the road can become a huge hazard for motorists and pedestrians alike. Firstly they can cover road markings and obscure junctions. Secondly they can make the roads wet and slippery, so it’s important to take drive carefully and take extra care on tree-lined roads.

Wind can cause a multitude of problems, with vehicles being difficult to control on open roads and debris causing drivers to swerve.

The main piece of advice we can give is take extra care, plan ahead and ensure your car has been serviced and can handle the transition from summer to autumn and then through to the cold winter months.

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More than half of drivers in the UK would be unable to cope if they had a car without a stereo.
That is the finding of a poll by Confused.com, which showed a further third would quickly install a music system if their vehicle did not come equipped with one.
One in five men said they drive faster when music is playing and head of car insurance at the price comparison site Gereth Kloet noted playing tunes while behind the wheel has become something of a “modern tradition”.
“While we would, of course, encourage all drivers to concentrate on the road, we like happy drivers who enjoy being in their cars,” he added.
Motorists were asked about their favourite driving song and Queen took the top two places – with Bohemian Rhapsody trailing Don’t Stop Me Now.
However, a SEAT survey last week had Bohemian Rhapsody in first place, with drivers perhaps enjoying the chance to recreate their favourite Wayne’s World scene.