Vengeance for those driven to distraction

WHO HASN’T been stuck behind a tractor refusing to let other drivers overtake on a narrow country lane?

Now they can be forced to pull over to the side of the road — at least in Norfolk.

Research has shown that one tractor driver was pulled over by police in April and given a £100 on-the-spot fine. He was one of thousands of motorists fined for careless and inconsiderate driving under new powers.

SOME WERE caught driving while reading work papers or maps, others used a road closed for repairs or raced at high speeds near pedestrians and schoolchildren.

The range of motoring offences emerged in full with the publication of the first comprehensive figures showing the number of £100 onthe-spot fines that police officers have levied for careless and inconsiderate driving under new powers.

At least 10,000 motorists have been fined for offences such as tailgating, hogging the middle lane and undertaking on the inside lane as part of a campaign against “anti-social” driving.

Most police forces around the country have taken advantage of the powers that allow officers to issue £100 on-thespot penalty notices and add three points to motorists’ licences for careless driving.

However, the figures also highlighted what motoring groups described as a “postcode lottery”, with officers in some areas not using the new powers at all while others deployed them extensively.

The greatest number of £100 fines were issued by Police Scotland, who gave out 3,252 penalty notices, followed by 1,397 by the Metropolitan Police, 621 by Nottinghamshire Police and 608 in Gwent, Wales.

For comparison, only three were issued by Durham’s police. Humberside issued just 12 tickets, although the force did order 793 motorists to attend safer driving courses and referred 151 of the most serious cases to the courts.

Three forces, South Wales, Dyfed-Powys and Essex, confirmed that they did not issue tickets at all for careless driving, but preferred to prioritise driver education.

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, backed the use of onthe-spot fines, but said they had to be enforced consistently. He said: “As with using mobiles at the wheel and drink-driving, it is not enough to outlaw anti-social behaviour on the roads. People need to believe they will get caught. These figures suggest that in several areas they won’t.”

In the first year after the new powers were introduced, drivers were penalised for a range of offences including performing wheel spins, pushing in to queuing traffic, failing to give way at junctions, driving too close to the car in front, sitting in the middle lane on motorways and undertaking.

Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows that a driver in Canterbury allowed people to cross the road and then “accelerated through a puddle”, soaking them on the pavement, in October 2013.

In the same month a driver was fined for driving along a road closed for repairs, in Snodland, near Maidstone, also in Kent.

One motorist in Cumbria was fined for driving with a mattress across the front passenger seat, impeding the view of the road, while in North Wales police fined a driver for having a dirty windscreen.

In April last year police in Norfolk fined a tractor driver who failed to pull in to let the queue of motorists behind him overtake, and another driver was fined after officers spotted him doing “paperwork on [the] steering wheel”.

Perhaps most intriguingly a motorist stopped for erratic driving in Norfolk claimed he had been “distracted by acts of female passenger”.

In North Wales a driver was fined for ignoring “keep left” bollards, driving on the wrong side of the road and failing to stop at a junction, while another motorist was stopped after driving the wrong way around a supermarket miniroundabout.

In all, 35 out of 45 police forces released figures on the number of motorists fined for careless driving offences between August 2013 and August 2014, with 9,852 penalties logged by their officers.

Police can still pursue serious cases through the courts, while drivers can also appeal against any decision at court.

Police were given power to issue fixed penalty notices for careless driving in August 2013. Previously, offenders could be dealt with only through the courts, but ministers feared many offences went unpunished because of the bureaucracy involved.

Robert Goodwill, the road safety minister, said: “Careless driving can risk lives, and I am glad to see police tackling these offences at the roadside. This is exactly why this government brought in a fixed penalty notice so officers can deal with offenders on the spot rather than having to prosecute offenders through the courts.”

Only a minority of forces were able to provide a full breakdown of details of offences between August 2013 and August 2014.

Of 362 cases in Lancashire, 68 were for lane hogging, 72 for wheel spins or handbrake turns and 16 for tailgating.

Cambridgeshire police issued 190 fines, with 19 for tailgating, 44 for lane hogging and another 28 were classed as overtaking offences.