There's something of a buzz this morning about
new powers for the police
to issue fixed penalties for careless driving offences, announced by Road Safety Minister Stephen Hammond in response to a consultation carried out last year.
Fines for phone use to climb from £60 to £100
If you want to read up on the detail of what's been announced before sounding off the Department for Transport has created a
helpful landing page full of links
to stats, tables and other official documents detailing the new powers and increased fines for common offences like driving on the phone, without insurance or not wearing a seatbelt. Or you can just skip all that and shoot from the hip...
There's a lot to take in though. And though few will moan about the idea of traffic cops being able to crack down on inconsiderate lane hogs or tailgaters the catch-all of fixed penalty notices for careless driving offences does raise some questions.
The DfT admits as much, saying "We acknowledge the concerns raised by respondents regarding the subjectivity of the offence. However, the principal aim of the fixed penalty is to improve the efficiency of the current enforcement regime in order to tackle low level offending, therefore enabling the greater use of educational courses to address such careless driving behaviours."
So what counts as too close to the car in front? And how long do you need to spend in the middle lane before risking three points and a £100 fine?
Crackdown on driving standards welcome?
In another document
careless driving is "defined by law as driving that 'falls below what is expected of a competent and careful driver' and 'driving without reasonable consideration for other persons only if those persons are inconvenienced by his driving'. The offence covers general poor driving and can include a variety of behaviours, such as tailgating, failing to look properly and sudden braking."
Currently police can either give you a ticking off or a summons, where you could get three to nine points, a fine of up to £5,000 or even 'discretionary disqualification' according to the severity. The ability to deal with it by issuing an on-the-spot fixed penalty will, it's hoped, enable police to enforce the law more efficiently and quickly with motorists, as before, retaining the option of their day in court should they choose.
In addition to the FPNs for careless driving offences the fines will also increase, as detailed in this table. In simple terms the existing £30 non-endorsable fixed penalties will rise to £50, £60 ones like phone use and minor speeding offences to £100 and driving without insurance from £200 to £300, the latter endorsable with points too as before.
So. What do we think? As you'd expect, PHers are already talking about this and you can join the debate right here...