‘Unanimous’ support for new driving offence

12.00 | 8 June 2012 | | 3 comments

94% of drivers support the planned new driving offence of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, according to a recent poll carried out by the IAM.

53% of the 1,400 respondents said that sentences should be based on the offence itself, while 44% believe they should be based on the outcome of the offence.

When asked what the biggest deterrents to bad driving were, 70% said ‘enforcement – the likelihood I will get caught’, 48% per cent said ‘the consequences – causing death or injury to myself or others’, and 43% said ‘the severity of the punishment if I am caught’.

Simon Best, IAM chief executive, said: “People want to see tougher penalties to deal with situations where the victim of a road accident is seriously injured. But the Government needs to ensure that punishments for dangerous driving accurately reflect the severity of the offences committed.

“It may seem shocking that enforcement is a greater deterrent to poor driving than the risk of causing death of injury, but just as seeing police on the beat reduces crime, highly visible traffic cops reduce bad driving. Therefore any change in law needs to be supported by well resourced enforcement on our roads.”

For more information contact the IAM on 020 8996 9777.

Comments

Comment on this story

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Report a reader comment

Order by Latest first | Oldest first | Highest rated | Lowest rated

    No Alan. Was never a traffic man but was very lucky (and honoured) to study with Derek Van Petegem and Pat Forbes at Hendon in the 70s as well as other police driving instructors of the day. Those were, indeed, the days. ‘Traffic’ had a presence on the roads, and drivers knew to watch their p’s and q’s. In my view they don’t now. Also in my view the loss of ‘Traffic’ has been one of the central losses in road safety for numerous reasons.


    Nigel Albright, TAUNTON
    Agree (0) | Disagree (0)
    0

    Steady Nigel you could be mistaken for being a cynical retired traffic offficer.

    Best wishes, Alan
    (A cynical retired traffic officer!!!)


    Alan Hale
    Agree (0) | Disagree (0)
    0

    This is good news. It’s pointing towards what Lord Cottenham (who effectively invented the police system of driving) suggested, that there should be an offence of driving to the common danger. Doubt if such a law will every get on the statue but, what an excellent idea: a sort of one law cures all! Ah, but then you would need to have traffic police back (ok, it’s now roads policing) across the whole country and that, given the way things are pointing, is also an equally unlikely idea, which is a great pity in my view. They had much to contribute to road safety, both directly and indirectly.


    Nigel Albright, TAUNTON
    Agree (0) | Disagree (0)
    0

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close