An interim independent research report, conducted by the Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester, is starting to identify the reasons why motorists ‘hit and run’. The research has been commissioned by MIB which compensates the innocent victims of accidents with uninsured and ‘hit and run’ drivers.
Survey responses from drivers convicted of ‘hit and run’ offences revealed:
· 50% did not think the accident was serious enough to report or they did not think that they had to report the accident (of this, 29% did not think it was serious enough and 21% were unaware of their responsibility to report an accident)
· 16 to 34 year olds were more likely to leave the scene of an accident because they were not insured, they had been drinking, were scared of the consequences or they ‘panicked’
· Older drivers (over 34 years old) were more likely to leave the scene if they did not think the accident was serious enough to report
Department for Transport (DfT) data highlights that in 2014 there were a total of 163,554 road traffic accidents where an injury was sustained and in just over 10% of these accidents a ‘hit and run’ driver was involved.
Successful interventions have been implemented by the government, MIB and the insurance industry to tackle the issue of uninsured driving and as a consequence of these, MIB estimates that the number of uninsured drivers has fallen from 2 million in 2005 to 1 million in 2016. The MIB is concerned that a reduction of a similar scale has not emerged with ‘hit and run’ drivers.
