Road Safety

The government’s recently published Strategic Framework for Road Safety

read here

seems to have got the press and television reporters into something of a lather.
Their concerns seem to be centred on the proposals to introduce a ‘new’ law of careless driving, no such thing!
That law already exists but what is proposed is to empower the police to issue a fixed penalty notice for ‘careless driving’.

I see nothing fundamentally wrong in this approach, very few such cases come to court as it is, I suspect because in most cases, the relativity minor ones, the police see such offences as not worth the bother of mounting a prosecution. If a fixed penalty is available, with a penalty points endorsement, it will, if nothing else, be a more robust approach that the current verbal warning.

As to the rest of the Strategic Framework there are some very sensible proposals and ideas.
The stated ‘Key Themes’ are to make it easier for road users to ‘do the right thing’, with better education and training for children and learner and inexperienced drivers. It proposes remedial education for low level offences and for those who make mistakes, (which may be far more effective in the long term than a fine and a licence endorsement), alongside tougher enforcement for the small minority of motorists who deliberately chose to drive dangerously; extending this approach to cover all dangerous and careless offences, not just focusing upon speeding.
It’s long been advocated by numerous road interest bodies that the police currently put far too much emphasis on speeding, through the over-reliance on speed cameras, and not enough on the generally appalling standard of driving exhibited by a majority of road users.
The idea to increase the range and use of educational courses that can be offered in place of fixed penalty notices to develop safer and more responsible driving behaviour, and the development of courses that courts can offer in the place of imposing a disqualification, is a progressive step towards improving the standard of driving in this country and should, if carried through, lead to safer roads through better driving.

The proposals to make it mandatory for disqualified drivers to be re-tested before regaining their licence, and developing special tests linked to remedial training, similar to those currently in place for drink-drivers, and for making that course mandatory rather than optional as it is now, are also positive steps towards safer roads.

One other welcome consideration is to increase the fixed penalty notice charge for uninsured driving, which is currently set far too low at £200 and has no relation to the actual cost of obtaining insurance for a great many drivers.

It’s a fact that less than 20% of road accidents are attributable to speeding and if these measures signify a change from the persecution of motorists through the hated Gatso and its ilk and towards a system which addresses the 80% of accidents caused by bad driving then I for one am all in favour.