Police have warned that new fines for careless driving, which come into effect from today, will be unenforceable.
Three licence penalty points as well as a £100 fine will now be issued for a range of offences, including middle-lane hogging, tailgating and cutting up other drivers. Read more here.
However, the Police Federation has warned of the difficulties it will face in trying to enforce the new laws, particularly when considering the cuts to the policing budget rolled out by the Home Office.
Vice-chariman of the policing body, Steve White, explained how the cuts to road policing officers will hinder the enforcement of the new laws: “It’s all very well for the Department for Transport to come up with these new ideas when the Home Office are at the same time cutting the number of police around the country, which means a fall in the number of traffic police.
“The levels of fatalities are increasing on the roads while the number of police officers is at its lowest per 100,000 of population since the 1970s.
“The rules are a useful tool but if you haven’t got the officers to give out the tickets, it’s not going to make a difference.
“The Department for Transport and the Home Office need to talk to each other.”
The plans have been implemented to make it easier for police to punish anti-social driving, by allowing them to issue fixed penalty points and fines on the spot. Before now it was necessary for police to stop a motorist, issue a summons and take the case to court. Consequently, due to the time consuming nature of obtaining a conviction as well as the financial aspect, minor driving offences went largely unpunished.
Road safety minister Stephen Hammond outlined the importance of combatting the dangers posed by anti-social drivers. He said: "Careless driving puts innocent people's lives at risk. That is why we have made it easier for the police to tackle problem drivers by allowing them to immediately issue a fixed-penalty notice for low-level offending rather than taking these offenders to court.
"We have also increased 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."
Scotland Yard’s former head of roads policing, Kevin Delaney, also welcomed the proposals.
“It is a much quicker and simpler way of dealing with the problem,” he said.
“It has always been used in the past for where there was no shade of grey, like jumping red lights.
“Careless driving has 50 shades of grey and it will end up being the motorist’s word against the copper.
“But it will help those motorists who realise they have done something wrong and would rather not be dragged through the courts.”
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