New on the spot fine proposals....

[The-HouseHusband]

It has been suggested that on the spot fines of up to £100 could be introduced for some motoring offences rather than having to take the driver to court.

Will this make any difference to the drivers attitude due to the lack of traffic police currently on the road and the threat of less in the future due to more cutbacks???

[Hopkirk]

We need a real traffic cop to answer this question please.

[Toureman]

As there approximately 7,000 traffic police to enforce this ludicrous suggestion and there are about 34 million driving licence holders it will not make any measurable difference!

[Hopkirk]

What will they do about foreign drivers?
Will they continue to ignore them because it is too difficult to apply the law?

[bookbinder]

I can't see this making any difference to drivers' attitude. After all, it's illegal to use a mobile phone whilst driving, but it still goes on.

[woofgang]

and what if the driver has no money or no money on them?...will police start being targets for muggings if they end up carrying large amounts of cash?

[Hopkirk]

I don't think they actually take the cash, they issue a fixed penalty notice.

[ladybirder]

You don't have to pay it there and then. I think you get issued with a Penalty Notice.

[woofgang]

oh so not an on the spot fine, a fixed penalty notice......so we are back to appeals, failure to pay, court appearance etecetera. With some motoring offences now isn't there the option to plead by letter and pay the fine? So what would be the difference?

[New Judge]

There will be no difference between this and the fixed penalty system in use for speeding. Drivers will still have the option to decline the fixed penalty offer and opt for a court appearance. There they may plead guilty and offer mitigation or plead not guilty and elect trial. Similarly the police have the option to refuse to offer a fixed penalty and prosecute instead for more serious incidents, as they currently do for speeding.

The only difference will be that, unlike speeding where unmanned detection is usual, offences such as Careless Driving require police presence at the time of the offence, so such fixed penalty offers will be far less prevalent.

[SpikeyBush]

Bottom line here in my opinion is enforcement. Currently cameras are relied upon too heavily and they can only detect certain offences. They won't capture aggressive undertaking, tailgating or the 90-year-old duffer in an Austin Maestro doing 50 in the outside lane. You need officers on the ground with a nose for something that isn't right, and that is a resource that has been getting thinner and thinner in recent years.

And proving in court that someone was following the vehicle in front too closely will be tricky in many cases, should the recipient of a fixed penalty for that offence elect to go down that avenue.