Insurance and unaccompanied learners

eth0_

I've been driving for 6 months now and have had my first provisional for 6 months.

I hear conflicting stories about whether you are covered by insurance if you were to have a crash while driving unaccompanied. Quinn Direct have told me I *am* covered, is this right? Even though driving alone on your first provisonal is technically illegal?

Seth Brundle

Driving unaccompanied on a 1st provisional is illegal but your insurance company may not say anything. Check what your policy document says and if you can't find anything then get it in writing somehow off them. Saying that you are covered over the phone is not enough (especially given that you are insured with Quinn!)

IrishRover

Insurance companies can't just walk away from their liabilities. If, for example, you cause an accident and you are on your own on a first provisional, drunk out of your mind, and with every possible modification on your car undeclared, they can't just say to someone making a claim against you "oh, we're not paying you because our insured didn't do this or that...". They are still the insurer concerned and they wouldn't try to shirk their responsibilities and if they did, IFSRA wouldn't let them.

eth0_

Well, I don't drink, I don't speed, I don't venture onto the motorway and i'm insured on (my dad's) Laguna 1.9.

FYI when I first tried to get insured when I was 19, they wouldn't quote me because I was trying to get insurance on my own, on a prov licence. But now i'm 24 they're fine about it.

Will see if I can get it in writing from our broker - haven't gone with Quinn just yet.

Seth Brundle

true rover but afterwards they can come after you with a civil action to recover costs!

leeroybrown

I'm fairly sure that they are legally bound to cover the policy even if the driver is unaccompanied on a provisional. Obvosuly you should check if you are worried about it.

Also, the advice you get from Quinn Direct very much depends on who answers the phone and can be spurious/dangerous crap.

Capt'n Midnight

My position on this is - if they enforced the law on unaccompanied learners then it would force some things to happen.

remove congestion on the roads by removing a large % of cars
improve public transport by increasing demand
force the govermnent to do something about the driving test waiting times - the last time they did anything was in 1979 when they handed out licenses without people having to do tests

Insurance companies should stand up and say that either they insure you to drive illegally or the Gardai should do spot checks since then up to 20% of motorists would be driving without insurance if you include those who don't have any at all..

IrishRover

kbannon wrote:

true rover but afterwards they can come after you with a civil action to recover costs!

They could, but they never would because they know you don't have the money, and it means more time (which they don't have) dragging you through the courts, at the end of which the best result they can reasonably hope for in most cases is that you agree to pay £30 a month for the next X years and they get to pay costs.

I heard of lots and lots of cases where people have had fraudulent claims thrown out of court and the insurance companies had to pay their own costs. You would think they would go after them for costs but they don't bother because they know it's a waste of time. That's why it goes on so much - there's no downside. The worst that can happen is that your fraudulent claim doesn't succeed and you're no worse off.

commited

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=262356