The Ministry of Justice has released statistics from its annual audit of the number of motoring offences and breath tests administered by the police in England and Wales.
In this latest report, covering the year 2005, the police and parking attendants dealt with 13 million motoring offences, down 3% on the previous year.
Unsurprisingly, cameras provided evidence for 88% of the two million speeding offences logged. We were surprised to learn that almost all convictions for causing death by dangerous driving (94%) continue to be against male drivers, though.
However, the report also raises a number of particularly concerning trends that road safety charity Brake has quite rightly raised.
These include the proportion of convictions for causing death by dangerous driving against young drivers, i.e. those aged under 21, continuing to rise, going from 24% in 2003, to 26% in 2004 and now 27% in this latest report. Additionally, careless driving offences rose 35% from 2004 to 2005, which takes into account new laws surrounding the use of mobile phones while driving.
Brake’s head of campaigns, Cathy Keeler, said:
"It's particularly worrying to see the steady rise in the proportion of convictions for causing death by dangerous driving against young drivers. This adds weight to urgent calls for the Government to overhaul our whole system of learning to drive. Brake wants to see a graduated driver licensing system introduced, with restrictions protecting young drivers from exposure to driving in the situations where they are most likely to crash.”
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