Road traffic
The Road Traffic Acts were put in place to regulate the use of vehicles and also to control the behaviour of the drivers using the road.
The original statute that decided the law was the Road Traffic Act 1988. There have of course been many changes on the roads since then and appropriate revisions have been made. The most recent being The Road Safety Act 2006. The Road traffic Acts particularly concentrate on:
- The construction and use of vehicles and equipment within the vehicle.
- The licensing of drivers
- Insurance requirements
- Appropriate action to be taken if the road traffic laws are broken
With the amount of people dying due to dangerous driving on the increase, the road traffic act 1991 introduced the laws and penalties involving ‘death by dangerous driving’.
There are plenty of reasons as to why someone may be committing a road traffic offence. The police have a number of powers, which are used accordingly to try and keep drivers and pedestrians safe on the roads. The police have the power to “pull over” anyone without reason. Failing to stop is a punishable offence. If someone is ever pulled over by the police, they would usually be asked to provide documents including:
- Driving licence
- Insurance certificate
- Vehicle registration document
If these documents are not readily available, the police will give 7 days to hand them in at the local station. Failure to provide these documents is a road traffic offence in itself.
What the police can do
If the police have found someone guilty of having committed a road traffic offence, they may issue them with either a fixed penalty notice or possibly a vehicle rectification notice. This is determined by the nature of the road traffic offence.
If the nature of the offence has resulted in a fixed penalty notice, the police may issue the offender with a fine. This may happen if the nature of the road traffic misdeed was; not wearing a seatbelt, or driving with a broken headlight. These penalties are known as non-endorsable offences, this means the driver may receive a fine-usually £30 but no points will be put onto the driving licence. If the driver is caught speeding, the fine is likely to be £60 with a possibility of receiving points on the licence.
If the road traffic offence resulted in a vehicle rectification notice, it means that part of the vehicle is defective, i.e. a broken indicator. The driver would have to fix the problem at provide proof at the nearest police station.
The most common road traffic offences
Most drivers would have been pulled over at some point, whether it was due to an accident or intentionally breaking the law. These are the most common road traffic offences:
- Failing to stop
- Failing to report
- Speeding
- Speeding on a motorway
- Driving without due care and attention
- Driving with no insurance
- Dangerous driving
- Driving without a licence
- Driving under the influence