Motorway accident

[Emu2005]

I've just seen on the news a lorry has jack-knifed on the m25 causing tailbacks of 20 miles. Accidents which cause injury or loss of life are a tragedy and people are sometimes punished for dangerous driving, but when no-one has been hurt is anyone ever punished? In todays example, thousands and thousands of people will be stuck in traffic all day, due to this one accident, which may be down to careless driving. Does it annoy anyone else that nothing ever seems to be done in these instances? I can't count the number of times I have been stuck in a queue on a motorway, then when I pass the accident it looks like a little bump between 2 cars - no doubt caused by people driving too close to each other. I am not comparing people being stuck in traffic with loss of life or injury, but I am just interested to know if anyone else gets as annoyed as me that thousands of peoples days are ruined and no-one ever really talks about the cause of the accident and if anyone will be punished?

[Dassie]

Punished for what exactly? I doubt whether careless driving could be proven. But what I will say is that there are far too many lorries on our motorways each trying to pass one another so slowly that it's no wonder accidents happen. Have you noticed the increase of foreign lorries? Freight needs to go back on railways OR lorries should only be allowed on motorways between 6pm and 6am as an experiment to ease congestion.

[New Judge]

There are many prosecutions brought for careless and dangerous driving when no injuries have occurred. The problem in the situation you describe is that to succeed with a prosecution there has to be evidence that the driving exhibited by one or more of the participants has fallen �below that expected of a careful and competent driver� (for careless driving) or �well below that of a careful and competent driver� (for dangerous driving).

The fact that an incident has occurred does not necessarily mean that this can be proved. It nearly always requires witnesses to provide statements and perhaps to give evidence in court. Most witnesses simply want to resume their journey without further ado. They are usually not prepared to �become involved� in something which is very often in an area far from their home. The police know this and do not trouble to seek out evidence in all but the most serious cases - usually those involving death or serious injury.

If all drivers drove carefully and competently all of the time there would be far fewer collisions. Very often incidents that are described as �accidents� are nothing of the sort and are the result of someone�s bad driving. However, proving it in court is another matter and that�s why there are far fewer prosecutions than collisions.

[redcrx]

if the lorry is found to have been overweight or unsafely loaded then the driver and the operator licence owner can be prosecuted for such.

[jiggy-gb]

Prosecutions should also be handed out to every muppet who adds to the tailbacks by rubbernecking, they're even more infuriating than the people who caused the accident in the first place.

[redcrx]

thatd be good Jiggy. And those who overdo the braking when someone 3 miles ahead just taps on theirs. Thatd stop a lot of tailbacks too. I hate sitting in traffic for half an hour only to find that there was nothing at the front of the queue

[jiggy-gb]

LOL Red, those people wind me up too, caution is always sensible, but there are limits!