ANPR AND UNINSURED DRIVING CLAIMS ARE JUST PLAIN WRONG
09 November 2005 - Safe Speed

Uninsured driving is a serious problem, but Automatic Number Plate Recognition(ANPR) won''t fix it says Safe Speed.

ANPR is a system that uses a video camera looking at vehicles to ''capture'' number plates. The registration mark is then compared electronically with various databases of vehicles that the Police may be interested in.

Government claims that ANPR can be effective against uninsured drivers do not
bear scrutiny, and for very simple reasons:

* It''s not the VEHICLE that needs insurance under the law, it''s the DRIVER.

* About 3 million motor vehicles are ''in the trade'' at any one time. Most of them will be properly insured, but none of them will be listed as insured in the databases.

* At least 1.5 million vehicles are in large fleets and are not insured based on vehicle registration mark. They aren''t in the databases either.

* It''s far from unusual to have a vehicle that is registered as insured being driven by a driver who has no insurance to drive in force. ANPR thinks the insurance is OK, but it isn''t.

* Even with a massive police effort it is virtually inconceivable that they will reach 250,000 prosecutions in a year. With two million uninsured drivers that means that the average uninsured driver should expect to get caught just once every EIGHT years.

* ANPR can be defeated by stealing or cloning vehicle registration marks. Widespread use of ANPR will make this practice commonplace and threatens to undermine the entire registration process. Reports suggest that 10% of vehicles are already lost to the system.

* Police officers have already reported so many false positives with ANPR, that they simply turn the equipment off. (reported in Auto Express)

* Vehicle seizures will encourage the use of ''disposable'' vehicles. The Police crush a £100 banger, and the uninsured driver simply buys another. He''s back on the road in a week.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign (www.safespeed.org.uk) said: ''Estimates of the number of uninsured drivers on our roads range up to 2 million. By any standards it''s a serious problem. But serious problems require serious solutions. Current plans are a bad joke.''

''The uninsured driver problem is considerably worsened by this government''s anti-car and anti-motorist policies; more and more motorists are finding that they are simply better off outside the law.''

www.safespeed.org.uk

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