In the two years since police were given the power to issue fixed penalty notices for careless driving over 17,000 people have been convicted of the offence.
That startling statistic has emerged from a Freedom of Information request issued by the Institute of Advanced Motorists.
Of the 33 police forces who responded to the request, Essex stood out as a hotspot with 3,630 convictions for careless driving between August 2013 and August 2015, coming out well ahead of the second highest region of Humberside where there were 1,998 occurences. Of the 3,630 issued with fixed penalty notices for careless driving the vast majority – 2,958 – undertook a course, with the rest electing to go to court or accept a conditional offer.
Police were granted the power to issue on-the-spot penalties for offences such as tailgating and poor lane discipline starting from 16 August 2013.
Sarah Sillars, IAM chief executive officer, said: “While these offences fall under the lower end of the scale for motoring transgressions, such driving behaviour could easily have caused a serious accident. Tailgating is an aggressive action designed to intimidate another driver, while unpredictable lane-changing is both thoughtless and dangerous. We hope these on-the-spot fines and remedial courses have helped concentrate the drivers’ minds and make them think twice about these potentially hazardous manoeuvres in the future.”
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