They found that more than 20% of 17 to 20 year olds are not covered by a valid car insurance policy, which amounts to a staggering 243,000 illegal young drivers on our roads.

Many illegal drivers cite the huge cost of an insurance policy as being the reason for not having cover.  Yet the risks of not having a policy are huge, not just for themselves, but also for anybody they may be unfortunate enough to crash into.

The BBC reports the story of 21 year old Gary Street, who was hit by an uninsured driver at 30mph in Manchester two years ago.

“I was travelling through Manchester City Centre on my way to work when a car hit me from behind as I was stationary,” he said.

“I was sent off into the other side of the road, the airbags went off, the seat belts imploded. The car was in quite a state to be honest.”

Gary was left with neck and back injuries, and was in quite a lot of pain and out of action for over a month as a result of the crash.

But as the other driver had no insurance, Gary was left to foot the bill.  He said: “I had no other option but to claim on my own insurance which came to a cost of £900 excess.

“I lost my no claims bonus and obviously it’s costing me more now to insure my car.”

Whilst out on patrol, Police use ANPR technology (automatic number plate recognition) to scan hundreds of car registrations every few minutes.  The system is able to instantly check if a vehicle has a current valid MoT certificate, tax disc and whether the driver has insurance.

The BBC interviewed Chief Inspector Richard Joyce from Surrey Police, who recently carried out a joint operation with police officers from Kent and Sussex on the M25.

He said: “We have the power to stop, question, and in some cases, arrest drivers without insurance.  The consequences for them can be anything from a fine, to points on their licence to having their car scrapped.”

New drivers should be aware that, for the first two years of passing their driving test they are subject to a probationary period, during which they will automatically lose their full driving licence if they accumulate 6 points or more.  Their licence is revoked and they must apply for a provisional licence and pass both the theory and practical tests again before obtaining another full driving licence.  And the number of penalty points given for driving without insurance?  6 points – therefore instant disqualification.

22 year old Sam, from Kent, was caught driving without insurance when he was 18.  He said, “I was driving without insurance because basically I couldn’t afford it, the cost was too high.

“I knew I should have had it but I also knew I was a good driver and I was safe.”

Sadly, this is the view of many young drivers – they suffer from the “it’ll never happen to me” syndrome.  The Chief Executive of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB), Ashton West says that the high cost of covering young drivers is not just about what car they drive.  In fact, it is usually down to the risk the driver poses on the roads.

“Young drivers statistically are a bad risk. They are many times more likely to have an accident.”

With so many young drivers on the roads illegally without cover, insurance companies, the police and motorists all say something needs to be done to tackle the problem.

Gary thinks he has the answer: “If insurance wasn’t so expensive for young drivers, it would encourage people to actually have the insurance.

“Then if you didn’t have the insurance I think the consequences of the law should be a lot tougher.”

Source:  BBC Newsbeat

More than half of all new drivers banned in the first two years of passing their test don’t bother retaking it.  The law says after a ban you must re-sit a test before driving again, but many people don’t realise.

Road safety groups reckon many young people are getting behind the wheel illegally.

They’re asking courts not to send driving licenses back to banned drivers before they’ve passed a re-test.

Ollie from Essex was aged 17 and had only been driving a few weeks when he got pulled over.

“I got caught speeding,” he says, “doing a hundred miles an hour, so it was an instant ban.”

He’s one of thousands of young drivers who get disqualified every month for picking up six points or more in their first two years after passing their test.

“After the month ban, through the post came my driving license so I thought, ‘Well, that’s my license to drive back’, so I carried on driving.”

He’d been told he’d have to take a re-test, but because his license was returned after a month he began driving again.

‘More likely risk’

The DVLA has told Newsbeat 17,814 people have been banned from driving since October 2008 but, like Ollie, almost half – 8,196 people – haven’t retaken their test.

The Young Drivers Act, which came into force in 1998, was supposed to deter dangerous driving, but road safety campaigners say this shows it’s not working.

“It’s naive to think that all these drivers just disappear and jump on the bus, they don’t, many of them are still driving,” says Edmund King from the AA.

“I think this is a major problem, but perhaps it’s a problem that the authorities aren’t really aware about.”

“When I was 9 years old I was run over by an illegal driver,” says 25-year-old Leigh-Ann Johns from Redcar.

She had to have both her legs amputated after an uninsured, unlicensed driver mounted the kerb and hit her.

“I just don’t see the harm in putting back in for your test,” she said.

Back in April the government announced changes to the driving test and introduced the pre-driver qualification.

From October 2010 learners will have to choose their own route to a certain place during their test to prove they can drive independently.

There will also be a 3-month course rolled out across schools and colleges which will count towards learners’ theory tests.

Message not clear?

But these figures show thousands of new drivers are still getting disqualified and then breaking the law by not bothering to retake their test.

“We clearly need to make sure that we look at this problem,” says Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick, “look at these numbers and come up with solutions to solve this problem and we’re very happy to do it.”

The AA reckons one reason that the situation is happening is because the message that you need to retake your test if you’re banned in the first two years of driving isn’t getting through.

They also think people having their license returned by the courts before they’ve taken another test needs to be looked into.

The Department of Transport says there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to be driving without a valid license.

They say anyone who does so is knowingly breaking the law and faces tough penalties.