LTB 305/13 Dangerous Driving Offence Penalties

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Letter to Branches




No. 305/13
Ref V6
Date: 10 May 2013

To: All Branches

Dear Colleagues,

Dangerous Driving Offence Penalties - New Increased Fixed Penalty Fines For Drivers Making Mobile Phone Calls and Sending Text Messages And Other Offences - Drivers to Face Higher £90 Fixed Penalty Fine Plus Penalty Points:

The government has issued a warning, in a crackdown on dangerous driving, announcing that fines for a variety of motoring offences will rise by 50 per cent from £60 to £90.
The number of penalty points offenders receive on their drivers licence will remain at three, although campaigners have called for that to rise to six points.

Sending a text message or making a phone call while at the wheel will land drivers with harsher penalties. In the announcement the Transport Minister Patrick McLoughlin stressed that texting at the wheel was dangerous. The cost increase will cover fixed-penalty notices for the offence of using a handheld device while driving, and also for speeding and going through a red light.

New Three Penalty Points and £90 Fixed Penalty Fines will also be introduced for a number of careless driving offences including:-
Cutting up other drivers
Eating a sandwich at the wheel
lighting a cigarette at the wheel,
Speeding by a small margin above the posted limit
Jumping a red light
Needlessly hogging the middle lane on the motorway

New drug-driving laws will also be introduced, and the current drink-drive limit will not be lowered.

More than a million drivers have been convicted of using a handheld mobile phone behind the wheel since 2003, when using one other than for making an emergency call was made illegal.

The RAC stated that both texting and handheld use of mobile phones at the wheel causes more impairment than being at the drink-drive limit or under the influence of cannabis, therefore the police need to target the large number of motorists continuing to flout the law.

The number of traffic Police on patrol fell by 30 per cent in 2012 and another series of coalition government cuts, of between 12 per cent, to 23 per cent is scheduled for 2013, depending on each force's budget. That means fewer Police on the road catching the most dangerous drivers, in unroadworthy cars or vans.

Please find attached a copy of the Official Government Guidelines on Driving Offence Penalties and the Highway Code detailing how many penalty points are awarded for different motoring offences.

Between Royal Mail and British Telecom alone, there is a combined fleet of around 75,000 vehicles and 150,000 Drivers, the majority CWU members. Driving remains the biggest risk to members and the most expensive risk to employers. Occupational Road Safety and compliance with motoring laws are essential to the safety and wellbeing of CWU members, their families and other road users. Please ensure members are aware of these changes.


Yours Sincerely



Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

[flaminmoses]

Needlessly hogging the middle lane on the motorway

that one would wipe the national debt

[Rudolph_Hucker]

No mention of applying slap whilst driving!

[UnhappyGremlin]

Yet more stealth taxes.