Hit and run a callous reality

There are mounting concerns that while overall road accident injury figures for the UK are down, there has been a sharp increase in the number people being admitted to accident and emergency wards with hit and run injuries.

Although there is UK-wide concern at this trend, it is in the nation's major cities that this problem is becoming most acute.

Hit and run road accidents in London
Nowhere is the problem greater right now than in the UK's capital, London.

In fact, the problem has become so bad that officials in London currently report an average of 80 pedestrians being injured by hit and run drivers each week.

Staggeringly, hit and runs now account for 16% of all road accidents in the capital. The problem is particularly pronounced in some boroughs. For example, in Hackney 25% of all traffic accidents are classified as being hit and runs.

Many road safety experts have been quick to link the phenomenon to another problem: uninsured motorist.

Uninsured more likely to hit and run
The Association of British Insurers estimates that at present there are around one million uninsured motorists on the nation's roads. With most uninsured drivers unlikely to stop in the event of an accident, fearing heavy penalties because of their uninsured status, it is easy to see why many have been quick to point out the connection.

It is a theory that is strongly supported by the evidence:

Uninsured drivers are ten times more likely to drink drive, three times more likely to be convicted of drink-driving and six times more likely to be at the wheel of an unroadworthy vehicle.

And when it is considered that the north and south of London are home to the highest numbers of uninsured drivers in all of the UK, a very clear picture emerges of the hit and run risk in the capital.

Outrage
Jenny Jones, London Mayor Ken Livingston's road safety ambassador, has responded by saying, "London has become a city where many drivers expect to break the rules and get away with it."

Cynthia Barlow, a spokesperson with road accident charity RoadPeace, comments on the capital's epidemic of hit and run incidents, "Where a death has occurred - somebody should be charged with causing a death. At the moment they're not - the law decriminalises what's happening... people are getting away with murder in a literal sense.

"It's not making people accountable for their behaviour. If a person thinks they're grown up enough to get in a car and drive - they should be responsible for what they do in it.

"We're not going to make people safer on the road until we change that attitude and make them accountable for what they do."

Making a no win, no fee road accident claim
If you have suffered injury as a result of the reckless or negligent driving of another driver, it is your right to claim compensation.

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