Wellington, Jan 9 NZPA - The insurance industry, which stands to benefit if compulsory third party insurance is introduced in New Zealand, is not disputing findings of a new survey that the problem of uninsured drivers on the roads is not as big as anecdotes suggest.

The Ministry of Transport survey of 4000 New Zealanders found that 92.4 percent had vehicle insurance while the other 7.6 percent of vehicle owners either had an uninsured vehicle or did not know whether their vehicle was insured. This is a level similar to countries that have compulsory vehicle insurance.

Insurance Council Terry Jordan said today that its own survey three years ago, with a smaller sample of people phoned, found 5 percent of vehicles were uninsured. At another time the council calculated that the number of vehicle insurance policies was 13 percent less than registered vehicles on the road, but some policies covered vehicle fleets.

"Anecdotes suggest whenever someone is hit it's by an uninsured motorist," he told NZPA.

He said if the ministry's survey included significant numbers of young people and people form lower socio-economic areas, the results were "fairly compelling" that more New Zealand motorists were covered by insurance than previously believed.

The Government is considering compulsory third party insurance as part of its Safer Journeys road safety strategy.

Releasing the survey findings yesterday, Transport Minister Steven Joyce said they didn't mean the Government was ruling out compulsory third party vehicle insurance ... "it does mean that the proposal may not deliver the benefits that might have been expected, because New Zealanders already have a high level of insurance.

"We are looking to choose the mix of actions that can make a significant improvement to New Zealand's road safety, at the least additional cost to motorists. This research will be important to further inform debate about which road safety actions will have the most impact."

In the United Kingdom, where vehicle insurance is compulsory, 6 percent of motorists are estimated to be uninsured.

Mr Joyce also noted that countries that do have compulsory vehicle insurance include the cost of injury cover in that insurance, whereas in New Zealand that cost is covered by ACC levies.

"That means that the premiums in New Zealand for such insurance are unlikely to be the high priced deterrent to young drivers owning vehicles that many New Zealanders seek," he said.

The new research found that while 70 percent of uninsured vehicles were owned by people under the age of 40, there was a fairly even split between those aged under 25 years and those aged over 25 years.

The most common reason given by people for not insuring their vehicle was that they could not afford to do so.

Mr Jordan said New Zealand insurance companies always sought to recover payment from at-fault uninsured drivers for damage sustained by their policy-holders.

"Insurance companies are pretty good at getting $10 a week out of people, although they'd rather have a lump sum," he said.