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.
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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
Home secretary vows to end UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers – as Denmark-based reforms to be unveiled
The home secretary is set to unveil sweeping measures to tackle illegal migration, vowing to end the UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers.
People granted asylum in the UK will only be allowed to stay in the country temporarily, in the changes expected to be unveiled on Monday by Shabana Mahmood.
Modelled on the Danish system, the aim is to make the UK less attractive for illegal immigrants and make it easier to deport them.
Planned changes mean that refugee status will become temporary and subject to regular review, with refugees removed as soon as their home countries are deemed safe.
The Home Office said the “golden ticket” deal has seen asylum claims surge in the UK, drawing people across Europe, through safe countries, onto dangerous small boats.
Under current UK rules, those granted refugee status have it for five years and can then apply for indefinite leave to remain and get on a route to citizenship.
As part of the changes, the statutory legal duty to provide asylum seeker support, including housing and weekly allowances, will be revoked.
The government will seek to remove asylum support, including accommodation and handouts, to those who have a right to work and who can support themselves but choose not to or those who break UK law.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Pic: PA
‘Last chance for a decent politics’
A government source said Ms Mahmood believes her reforms are about “more than the electoral fortunes of her party”.
“This is the last chance for a decent, mainstream politics. If these moderate forces fail, she believes, something darker will follow,” they said.
“But this demands that moderates are willing to do things that will seem immoderate to some. She has reminded those who are reluctant to embrace her ambition for bold reform, with an ultimatum: ‘if you don’t like this, you won’t like what follows me.'”
Ms Mahmood said they were the most sweeping changes to the asylum system “in a generation”, as she vowed the government will “restore order and control to our borders”.
The home secretary also told The Sunday Times that “I can see – and I know my colleagues can – that illegal migration is tearing our country apart”.
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System being ‘gamed’
The source said Ms Mahmood believes the system is being “gamed by those travelling on boats or abusing legal visas”.
Some 39,075 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey across the Channel so far this year, according to the latest Home Office figures.
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The gangs smuggling people to the UK
That is an increase of 19% on the same point in 2024 and up 43% on 2023, but remains 5% lower than at the equivalent point in 2022, which remains the peak year for crossings.
What happened in Denmark?
The UK government points to Denmark remaining a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, while also cutting the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years and successfully removing 95% of rejected asylum seekers.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the Labour government has “lost control” of the UK’s borders” with illegal channel crossings “surging to over 62,000 since the election”.
He said some of the new measures were welcome but “they stop well short of what is really required and some are just yet more gimmicks – like the previous ‘smash the gangs’ gimmick”.
Mr Philp added: “Only the Conservative borders plan will end illegal immigration – by leaving the ECHR, banning asylum claims for illegal immigrants, deporting all illegal arrivals within a week and establishing a Removals Force to deport 150,000 illegal immigrants each year.”
And Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, said: “These sweeping changes will not deter people from making dangerous crossings, but they will unfairly prevent men, women and children from putting down roots and integrating into British life.”
Ms Mahmood will be appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.
UK
Rail worker who protected passengers during mass stabbing on Huntingdon train discharged from hospital
The train crew member who was seriously injured while trying to protect passengers during a mass stabbing has been discharged from hospital.
Samir Zitouni, 48, known as Sam, was working on board the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train from Doncaster to London when the attack began in Cambridgeshire on Saturday 1 November.
LNER said Mr Zitouni, who has worked for the firm for more than 20 years, was credited with helping to save multiple lives.
Mr Zitouni had been in a critical condition, having suffered multiple injuries in the incident, but was discharged on Saturday.
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Mahmood praises rail worker
His family said: “We are so grateful for the outpouring of support from the public, and very touched by all the kind words about Sam’s brave actions on the night of the attack.
“While we are really happy to have him home, he still has a significant recovery ahead and we would now like to be left in privacy to care for him as a family.”
Earlier this month, LNER said he has been a “valued member” of staff for over 20 years, working on board as a customer experience host.
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Train mass stabbing: A timeline of events
David Horne, managing director at LNER, said: “In a moment of crisis, Sam did not hesitate as he stepped forward to protect those around him.
“His actions were incredibly brave, and we are so proud of him, and of all our colleagues who acted with such courage that evening. Our thoughts and prayers remain with Sam and his family. We will continue to support them and wish him a full and speedy recovery.”
The attack is understood to have started shortly after the train left Peterborough, with passengers pulling the emergency alarms on the LNER service.
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Police believe train attacker filmed waving knife
Train driver Andrew Johnson, who served in the Royal Navy for 17 years, contacted a signaller and requested an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon station.
11 people were treated in hospital after the mass stabbing – nine were initially reported as having life-threatening injuries.
Anthony Williams, 32, was remanded into custody at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on November 3, charged with 10 counts of attempted murder over the incident.
He will appear at Cambridge Crown Court on 1 December.
Donald Trump has said he will sue the BBC for between $1bn and $5bn over the editing of his speech on Panorama.
The US president confirmed he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster while on Air Force One overnight on Saturday.
“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he told reporters.
“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
Mr Trump then told reporters he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the weekend, and claimed “the people of the UK are very angry about what happened… because it shows the BBC is fake news”.
The Daily Telegraph reported earlier this month that an internal memo raised concerns about the BBC’s editing of a speech made by Mr Trump on 6 January 2021, just before a mob rioted at the US Capitol building, on its flagship late-night news programme.
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BBC crisis: How did it happen?
The concerns regard clips spliced together from sections of the president’s speech to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell” in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.
Following a backlash, both BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness resigned from their roles.
‘No basis for defamation claim’
On Thursday, the broadcaster officially apologised to the president and added that it was an “error of judgement” and the programme will “not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms”.
A spokesperson said that “the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited,” but they also added that “we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim”.
Earlier this week, Mr Trump’s lawyers threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn unless it apologised, retracted the clip, and compensated him.
The US president said he would sue the broadcaster for between $1bn and $5bn. File pic: PA
Legal challenges
But legal experts have said that Mr Trump would face challenges taking the case to court in the UK or the US.
The deadline to bring the case to UK courts, where defamation damages rarely exceed £100,000 ($132,000), has already expired because the documentary aired in October 2024, which is more than one year.
Also because the documentary was not shown in the US, it would be hard to show that Americans thought less of the president because of a programme they could not watch.
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Sky’s Katie Spencer on what BBC bosses told staff on call over Trump row
Newsnight allegations
The BBC has said it was looking into fresh allegations, published in The Telegraph, that its Newsnight show also selectively edited footage of the same speech in a report broadcast in June 2022.
A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC holds itself to the highest editorial standards. This matter has been brought to our attention and we are now looking into it.”
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