Why hogging the middle lane will land you a £100 fine

New on-the-spot penalties for careless driving offences as well as steeper charges will come into force next month.

From July, police will be granted new powers to issue £100 on-the-spot fines and three points to careless drivers with a new Fixed Penalty Notice.

Offences that fall under this new code include motorway tailgaters and those that hog the middle lane.

In a crackdown on bad driving, existing fixed penalty charges are also due to go up across the board on offences like speeding and using a hand-held mobile phone while driving.

New fixed penalty

The new Fixed Penalty Notice for careless driving will punish motorists with an instant £100 fine and three points or the chance to go on an educational driving course. But drivers will still be able to appeal any decision in court.

The move is being made to free up the amount of police time being spent on the administration behind court cases for less serious offences.

Until now a careless motorists had to be stopped by a police office, issued a summons and evidence had to be presented in court.

The bureaucracy involved in taking a case to court has meant that middle lane hoggers and motorway tailgaters have generally been able to get away with their careless driving.

But now they will be served quick justice.

Road Safety Minister Stephen Hammond said:“Careless drivers are a menace and their negligence puts innocent people’s lives at risk. That is why we are making it easier for the police to tackle problem drivers by allowing them to immediately issue a fixed penalty notice rather than needing to take every offender to court.”

Edmund King, AA President welcomed the changes. He said: “We are also pleased to see that at long last new powers and fines will be given to the police to tackle the top three pet hates of drivers – tailgaters, mobile phone abusers and middle lane hogs.”

More serious cases of careless driving will continue to go through the courts, where offenders could be charged much higher fines and penalties.

Existing fixed penalty changes

As well as the new on-the-spot fines for careless driving the Government will also raise the charges on most other fixed penalty offences.

A £30 non-endorsable fine (where no points are given) - for things like not giving way at a roundabout - will rise to £50.

A £60 endorsable fine (where points are given) for something like using a hand-held mobile phone while driving and some non-endorsable offences like failure to wear a seatbelt while driving, will rise to £100.

More serious endorsable £120 fines will rise to £200, while the £200 charge for driving without insurance will rise to £300.

The number of penalty points these offences bring will stay the same and parking charges won’t be affected.

Hammond said: “We are also increasing penalties for a range of driving offences to a level which reflects their seriousness and which will ensure that they are consistent with other similar penalty offences.”

Many penalty charges haven't been increased since 2000, while retail prices have gone up 40%. A consultation review from the Department of Transport into putting charges up last year said that a £60 penalty now seemed trivial in comparison to how serious the offences were and were lower than other penalties of a similar severity.

Getting the message

Motoring offences cost lives.

In 2011 excess speed contributed to 213 deaths, while using a mobile phone while driving was behind 374 road casualties.

Chief Constable Suzette Davenport, ACPO lead on roads policing, said: “The vast majority of drivers are law abiding, but some are still not getting the message. We said we would get tougher on those who make our roads dangerous and that is exactly what we have done.”

What do you think? Are larger fines really the way to get the message across? Or is there more effective action that could be taken? Let us know in the comment box below.

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