Tougher legislation to fine drivers who tailgate, hog the middle lane or display poor driving behaviour, comes into force today.
The plans, revealed in June, give police greater powers to penalise careless drivers immediately, rather than sending them to court. The idea is to save police time, which would otherwise be spent pursuing lengthy court cases, and to discourage drivers from careless driving.
Existing fixed penalties for not wearing a seatbelt, or using a mobile phone while driving, will rise from £60 to £100. The fixed penalty for driving without insurance is also rising from £200 to £300.
It's also thought that police will be able to utilise their new powers to issue fixed penalty notices to those not giving way at junctions, or to those using the wrong lane at a roundabout.
Previously, many instances of poor driving had gone unpunished due to the time required and complexity involved in prosecuting a motorist. They would have to be stopped, issued a summons and then have evidence presented against them in court.
Launching the new policy, transport minister Stephen Hammond said "Careless drivers are a menace and their negligence puts innocent people's lives at risk. That is why we are making it easier for the police to tackle problem drivers by allowing them to immediately issue a fixed penalty notice rather than needing to take every offender to court.
"We are also increasing penalties for a range of driving offences to a level which reflects their seriousness and which will ensure that they are consistent with other similar penalty offences."
Several organisations expressed positive views on the developments in the run up to the launch, but there is also overall concern that the new regulations will have little real-world effect on road safety due to the requirement for a physical police presence on the road.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Yep!!!!
Big one in England yesterday,i don't suppose there's been any advertising of the new laws?,other than on local TV stations?,don't think it's in the Press either?
M-way accidents are sure to rise..
I think it's fair to say, most motorway accidents are caused by mistakes made whilst changing lane and all this purge is going to do is increase the number of accidents on our motorways.
You can see it now, most people are going to be petrified of staying in the middle lane and will feel the need to get back to lane one as soon as they can just in case an unmarked police car with a book full of unused fix-pen dockets is lurking behind. Trouble is, they'll soon have to come back out again a few seconds later to get by the two lumbering artics up ahead. And then go back in again - and so it goes on and on and on, vastly increasing the number of lane changing events, and therefore, vastly increasing the chances of somebody coming in from lane three not being seen in the side mirrors of somebody coming out of lane one. Or vice-versa.
If there's any lane that needs ridding of hoggers, it's the outside lane. Very often I see a stubborn driver sat there with a long line of snarling frustrated drivers trailing behind.
Yes, 'sometimes' 'some people' can be in the way in the middle lane if the outside lane isn't free. But I fear all this announcement of new powers and obvious clamp down will end up doing is making our motorways an unnecessarily far more tiresome and dangerous place to be.
And it's GO GO GO!!!!!!!!
Well, at least the car mags are reminding us about the new laws starting on Friday, haven't seen any paper or TV adverts warning about this.have you?