The Road Traffic Act
History
In the UK, driving without insurance is a criminal offence, and this is the reason why...
The 1st Road Traffic Act was introduced in the 1930's when motoring started to become cheap enough that ordinary people could afford cars. With the increasing amount of traffic on the roads, came an increasing amount of accidents and therefore injuries. Depending on the severity of the incident, an individual may not have been able to afford to compensate an injured 3rd party adequately, so the act was passed to address this by making insurance for bodily injury compulsory.
These days there also exists the Motor Insurer's Bureau (see sidebar), which was set up to provide compensation for victims when it isn't available from the driver, either because the driver was not insured, or could not be traced, such as after a hit and run accident.
3rd Party & EU cover
Over the years, the Act has been modified and updated, to include cover for passenger injuries and property damage, amongst other things, and recently to incorporate a number of EU directives.
In particular, the 3rd directive extends the Road Traffic Act to cover motoring elsewhere in the EU and specifies the minimum amount of insurance cover which should be provided by a motoring policy. In the UK, this is your legal liability to compensate 3rd parties for:
- death - unlimited
- injury - unlimited
- property damage - €1,000,000 minium cover required
- medical treatment - varies depending on treatment
If the policyholder is a business, this also includes the company's legal liability to it's employees whether driving or a passenger, travelling in the course of business on behalf of the company. The cover for this is also unlimited.
This level of cover is known as and does not give you anything towards any damage your own car may have sustained. Fire, theft and comprehensive insurance for your vehicle is not legally required but is available from your insurance company.
Green Cards
Your current UK insurance whilst in another EU country will give you either the minimum UK cover, or the minimum cover required in the country you are visiting, whichever has the higher level, as standard. This means you no longer need a green card within the EU. Some companies will still issue one if you ask, as it will have the cover translated into different languages on it, although even this is not strictly necessary anymore.
If you have comprehensive cover, you may still only get 3rd party cover in the EU so it is worth checking before you go. If you want to upgrade your cover abroad to fully comprehensive, you usually can for a small fee.
Current Law
The Road Traffic Act is not now purely concerned with just insurance. It also describes the law that applies to the road with regard to:
- Road Safety
- Vehicle Use & Construction
- Licencing
- Driving Instruction.
For full details of the Road Traffic Act start here: Road Traffic Act This is the main act which motoring law is based on today. There have been several revisions and additions to the act since, as legislation constantly changes, and these are also listed under the respective years they were made law.