Only a few lane hoggers pay penalty

Middle lane hoggers and tailgaters in Kent have been slapped with penalties only a handful of times since new powers were granted to police, according to a KMTV investigation. Since August 2013 officers have been able to issue £100 on-thespot fines to drivers caught lane hogging or tailgating, who can also be given three points on their licence. But Kent Police records reveal only 16 occasions, roughly once every two months, where officers have issued penalties to drivers specifically for using lanes incorrectly since the legislation came into force, according to information obtained by freedom of information requests. For tailgating, there are only four records of police penalising motorists - little more than once every seven months. For the umbrella offence of careless driving, which covers lane hogging, tailgating, inconsiderate driving among other offences, police records show 243 tickets issued since August 2013. This is five times less than Nottinghamshire Police, a similarly sized county with several dual carriageways, which handed out 1,369 tickets in the same period. And an FOI request made to Surrey Police showed it had already issued 187 notices for tailgating and lane hogging by June 2014 – 159 more than police handed out by the end of 2015. A Kent Police spokesman said officers did not always record the reason for issuing a ticket for careless driving, despite there being a text box for this on the document, and so the number of penalties issued is likely to be higher.