Worst areas for uninsured driving revealed – as hit-and-run victim says he was ‘left for dead’
The worst offending areas for uninsured driving in the UK have been revealed – as a hit-and-run victim described how he was “left for dead” with catastrophic injuries.
Every 20 minutes, someone in the UK is hit by an uninsured or hit-and-run driver, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) said, based on claims from over 26,000 victims each year.
Every day, at least one person is so seriously injured by an uninsured or hit-and-run driver that they need life-long care and every week, at least one person is killed by an uninsured driver, according to the bureau.
Thurrock in Essex is the worst offending area for uninsured driving, according to claim data from the MIB, a non-profit organisation created to protect people from the impact of uninsured and hit-and-run drivers.
Four different postal areas in Birmingham are among the 15 hotspots highlighted by the MIB, with areas in Peterborough, Manchester, Belfast and Havering also named due to housing a large number of defendants per 1,000 residents.
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Map shows worst areas for uninsured driving in UK
The 15 worst postal areas for uninsured driving
• 1. Thurrock (RM19)
• 2. Birmingham (B25)
• 3. Birmingham (B18)
• 4. Peterborough (PE1)
• 5. Sandwell (B66)
• 6. Havering (RM1)
• 7. Birmingham (B21)
• 8. Manchester (M18)
• 9. Birmingham (B35)
• 10. Belfast (BT17)
• 11. Epping Forest (IG7)
• 12. Belfast (BT13)
• 13. Buckinghamshire (HP18)
• 14. Bradford (BD7)
• 15. Luton (LU1)
One of the victims of an uninsured driver is cyclist Cahal O’Reilly, 55, who was five miles from the ferryport in Holyhead, Wales, when he was hit from behind in September 2021.
He was thrown on to the windscreen and 20m through the air until he landed on the side of the road, seriously injured.
The uninsured driver, who police estimate was driving at 70mph, fled the scene.
Mr O’Reilly suffered catastrophic injuries, including a broken neck and back. Pic: MIB
‘Left for dead’
“I was left for dead, bleeding to death on the side of the road,” Mr O’Reilly told Sky News.
“Nobody knows how long I was on the floor for. When I came to my senses, I could taste my own blood and feel the road on my cheek.”
He realised he was “pretty seriously injured” when he could not move his ankles, and lay still until help arrived.
A passing motorist, who initially thought Mr O’Reilly’s lifeless form was debris before realising it was a body, called the emergency services.
Mr O’Reilly was left with serious injuries, including a broken back and neck, shattered pelvis, smashed bone in his leg, and dislocated shoulder and required several surgeries in the days after the crash.
Police said Mr O’Reilly would be dead if he had not worn his helmet. Pic: MIB
The back tire of Mr O’Reilly’s bicycle was completely ripped apart. Pic: MIB
“I suffered a polytrauma, which is multiple horrendous injuries,” Mr O’Reilly said. “The police said if I hadn’t been wearing a helmet, I would be dead, and officers didn’t think I would make it.
“The hospital consultant told my wife that most people don’t survive the impact, the time until the ambulance arrives, and 22 hours of operations in 48 hours.”
Doctors had to use rods to reconnect Mr O’Reilly’s knee and ankle on his right leg, as the bottom of his foot “was just hanging on by skin and muscle”, and use an arterial skin graft from his left arm to help patch up the damage to his smashed leg.
Mr O’Reilly, who lives in Wandsworth, south London, also had to wear a neck brace for more than five months to stabilise his shattered neck and had to learn how to walk again, with serious setbacks on the way.
Mr O’Reilly had to learn how to walk again after extensive surgery. Pic: MIB
‘Challenging’ recovery
“My pelvis and back fused and healed very quickly, but my leg took the main force of initial impact, with bits of my leg tissue found in the headlight of the car,” Mr O’Reilly said.
Just when he started seeing some progress in the rehab for his leg, about 18 months after the crash, doctors discovered that the metal work supposed to hold the bones together was falling apart, causing a serious infection in his leg.
Mr O’Reilly required another surgery and was told that if the bone did not heal, his leg would have to be amputated.
Mr O’Reilly’s blood and tissue were found in the headlights of the driver’s car. Pic: MIB
Four years on from the horrifying crash, he was told that his bone had finally fused last month.
“If you walk past me in the street, you wouldn’t know now, but the process to get there was very difficult and psychologically quite challenging,” Mr O’Reilly said.
The former British Army major hopes he will be able to return to work as a business consultant next year.
Read more:
Victim criticises ‘appalling’ sentence for uninsured driver
Nurse describes ‘horrific’ fatal crash
He is now campaigning with the MIB to stop uninsured drivers from hitting the roads, as he wants “nobody to go through what I had to go through”.
“We have to do something in this country,” he said. “People are morally making a choice where they don’t care about their fellow citizens and fail to insure their car and make sure it is properly taxed. Something like that is a social responsibility.”
Mr O’Reilly is campaigning with the MIB to stop uninsured motorists. Pic: MIB
£1bn cost of uninsured drivers
Uninsured driving costs the government £1bn a year, including compensation for victims, emergency services, medical costs and loss of productivity.
An uninsured vehicle is seized every four minutes across the UK, with almost 120,000 seized so far this year, the MIB said.
The bureau has launched a week-long road safety initiative in collaboration with police forces across the UK, including targeted enforcement in problem areas and public education to urge people to check their insurance status.
“Our aim is to end uninsured driving, which means working closely with the police across the UK to remove dangerous vehicles from our roads,” Martin Saunders, head of enforcement at MIB, said.
“At the same time, we are ramping up our support for motorists who want to drive legally, providing them with the knowledge they need to have the right cover in place.”
UK
Resident doctor strikes: I don’t want people to suffer but we have to walk out again, says BMA chief
The British Medical Association (BMA) has defended a new round of resident doctor walkouts starting on Friday, insisting medics’ pay is still “way down” compared with 2008 and that the government has failed to finish “a journey” towards restoring it.
BMA chair Dr Tom Dolphin told Sky News the dispute remains rooted in years of pay erosion that have left resident doctors far behind other public sector workers.
“When we started the dispute, […] the lowest level of the resident doctors were being paid £14 an hour,” he said.
“There were some pay rises over the last couple of years that brought that partly back to the value it should be at, but not all the way.
“The secretary of state (Wes Streeting) himself called it a journey, implying there were further steps to come, but we haven’t seen that.”
Resident doctors outside Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary during a five-day strike in July. File pic: PA
When asked if the row ultimately “comes down to money”, he replied: “In the sense that the secretary of state doesn’t want to or isn’t able to fund the pay increases to match the value that we had in 2008.”
Dr Dolphin argued that while “the general worker in the economy as a whole” has seen pay catch up since the 2008 financial crash, “doctors are still way down”.
The government points out that its 29% settlement last year was one of the largest in the public sector and was intended to draw a line under two years of walkouts.
But Dr Dolphin said the deal still fell short: “The gap was biggest for doctors and needed the biggest amount of restoration, and that’s what we got.”
He defended the BMA’s use of the Retail Price Index (RPI), a metric rejected by the Office for National Statistics, saying it “better reflects the costs people face”.
Should resident doctors get a pay rise? Have your say in the poll at the bottom of this story.
Dr Tom Dolphin says resident doctors are still underpaid
‘Who do you think is treating the patients?’
With Chancellor Rachel Reeves preparing her budget amid warnings of deep cuts, Dr Dolphin said the BMA is not demanding an immediate cash injection.
“We’re quite happy for that money to be deferred with some kind of multi-year pay deal so that we can end the dispute and avoid having further industrial action about pay for several years to come,” he said.
“Money spent in the NHS is returned to the economy. For every pound you spend, you get several pounds back.”
When pressed on whether the £1.7bn cost of previous strike action could have been better spent on treatment and technology for NHS cancer patients, he hit back: “Who do you think is treating the cancer patients? It’s the doctors.”
Read more on Sky News:
Thousands of NHS redundancies
Sentence and fine over patient death
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has criticised the BMA for striking again. File pic: PA
Strikes will cause disruption, union boss admits
Dr Dolphin rejected suggestions that the dispute could destabilise the government, calling the idea “implausible”.
He admitted prolonged strikes have tested public patience, but said the government had left doctors with no choice.
“A prolonged industrial dispute makes people annoyed with both sides,” he said. “It is vexing to us that we are still in this dispute.”
“I don’t want patients to suffer,” he added. “I accept that the strikes cause disruption… of course that’s upsetting for them. I completely get that. And I’m sorry that it’s happening.”
Sir Keir Starmer has apologised to his health secretary after allies of the prime minister accused him of plotting a coup.
Sky News understands Sir Keir spoke briefly to Wes Streeting on Wednesday evening, though did not share details about the briefing campaign.
Politics Hub: Follow latest updates
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions earlier in the day, he denied authorising the attacks on Mr Streeting, who was accused of planning a leadership challenge after the budget later this month.
Mr Streeting said the allegations are “not true”, telling Sky News’ Mornings With Ridge And Frost that whoever was behind the briefings had been “watching too much Celebrity Traitors”.
He insisted he was loyal to the prime minister, who has been under mounting pressure as he and the Labour Party flounder behind Reform in the polls.
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Health secretary insists he’s ‘a faithful’
Downing Street went on the attack on Tuesday night to ward off any potential challenge to Sir Keir after the budget, which could see the government announce manifesto-breaking tax rises.
Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves have refused to rule out raising income tax, national insurance, or VAT.
One senior figure told Sky News political editor Beth Rigby while a post-budget challenge is unlikely, it could come if next May’s elections – including in London and Wales – go badly for Labour.
Labour face a challenge from Reform on the right and parties like the Greens and Plaid Cymru on the left.
Read more: How No 10 plunged itself into crisis
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Starmer backs Streeting at PMQs
Also under pressure is the prime minister’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, after Mr Streeting hit out at a “toxic culture” inside Number 10.
Sir Keir failed to say he had “full confidence” in him at PMQs in response to questions from Kemi Badenoch, but the prime minister’s political spokesperson later insisted to journalists that he does retain his backing.
Sky News understands Mr McSweeney was not discussed when Sir Keir and Mr Streeting spoke last night.
Labour chairwoman Anna Turley said the prime minister will investigate the source of the claims against the health secretary, telling ITV: “This is not what he wants to see and he’s determined to drive it out.”
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