| January 2010 |
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| Roads report: Only half of the motorways in England reach the top safety rating – and other major roads are much worse – according to the Road Safety Foundation’s annual report. The study, which evaluates roads with a star rating system, said that structural issues mean that many routes do not protect drivers who run off roads. (BBC News Website) |
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| “Most” back limit cut: A poll commissioned by the Scottish Government suggests that four out of five people in the country would back a reduction in the drink-drive limit. (BBC News Website) |
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| Congestion failures: Schemes aimed at easing congestion have succeeded only in creating rat-runs and an increase in speeding, according to the Highways Agency. The agency conducted an official evaluation into four bypass schemes. (Telegraph) |
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| Road train trials: “Road trains”, where a convoy of cars are “driven” automatically by a single lead vehicle, are to be trialled in the UK. The system, which links cars together with “electronic shackles”, would apparently allow drivers in the convoy to sit back and relax while the lead vehicle does all the hard work, saving fuel and allegedly improving safety. (Independent) |
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| December 2009 |
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| More mobile use: A study by the Transport Research Laboratory suggests that more people are using their mobile phones behind the wheel now than were before tougher penalties were introduced two years ago. (Nationals) |
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| Lower limit’s good: Research published in the British Medical Journal suggests 20mph zones reduce road injuries by more than 40 per cent. The study found that benefits of the zones were most marked in children and cyclists. RoSPA said the study validated its long-held support for the expansion of the zones. (Nationals) |
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| September 2009 |
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| Road casualties out – Two thirds of road crash casualties were not recorded by the Government last year, the latest Department for Transport report reveals. The Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2008 report concedes that figures provided by police may underestimate the number of casualties. RoSPA said the report, which revealed speed played a part in 41per cent of deaths of young male drivers, showed speeding was still a problem. (Telegraph and various) |
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| Satnav fine - A professional driver is believed to be one of the first people in the UK to be convicted of driving without due care and attention for following his satnav blindly. The man’s car ended up teetering on the edge of a cliff when he drove up a narrow bridle path in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. He was given six penalty points and ordered to pay fines and costs of nearly £900. RoSPA said driving required concentration at all times, and that drivers, not their satnavs, should be the boss. (Nationals) |
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| In-car crash alert call - The UK has been urged to sign up to car accident technology which automatically alerts emergency services after a crash. The European Commission needs all EU member states to sign up to the system, but the UK is one of six countries yet to do so. (Birmingham Post) |
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| Cannabis driver jailed - A lorry driver who had been smoking cannabis before he killed a motorist by driving into her at 60mph in thick fog near Basildon has been jailed for 14 months. The driver pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving after an earlier charge of causing death by careless driving while unfit through drugs was dropped. (Telegraph) |
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| Lorry driver killed by toxic seaweed? – A lorry driver who died when his vehicle careered into a wall after he collapsed at the wheel may have been the first victim of toxic algae that has accumulated along the coast of Brittany, France. He had carried three truckloads of rotting seaweed away from the beaches where it had been releasing poisonous hydrogen sulphide gas. He had been working without a mask or gloves. (Times) |
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Driver and boss guilty – A coach driver and his boss are facing jail after admitting manslaughter in relation to a crash in which a married couple died. The coach, which had been hired from 1-4-You Airports and Coach Travel, based in Burntwood, Staffordshire, was taking a marching band to a competition when it careered into the couple’s car near Scarborough. The driver and his boss pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence, namely because the coach was not kept in a safe and roadworthy condition, the braking system had not been checked and maintained and appropriate safety checks had not been carried out. The driver also pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving. Sentencing will take place on November 13. (B’ham Post, BBC News Website)
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| August 2009 |
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| Foreign lorries danger - The Freight Transport Association is calling for more to be done to tackle unsafe, foreign-registered lorries. It said unsafe and poorly-driven foreign lorries were giving the logistics industry a bad name even though the UK fleet was the best in Europe. (Birmingham Post) |
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| Driverless juggernauts – A report on robots by the Royal Academy of Engineering states that 30 per cent of the trucks on Britain’s roads will be fully automated by the end of the next decade. The report also mentions the possibility of robot babysitters (already on sale in Japan) as well as robot surgeons, pets and carers. (Daily Mail) |
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| L-driving potholes - Driving instructors are regularly rerouting lessons due to crumbling road surfaces and potholes, according to an AA survey. (Nationals) |
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| June 2009 |
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| Tesco acts on road safety – The chief executive of Tesco has promised to change delivery times at one of its stores in Exminster in order to improve road safety. Deliveries to the town’s Tesco Express will be made after 9am after complaints that two school children had been hurt in recent years as a result of congestion partly caused by Tesco lorries. (BBC News Website) |
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Mirrors on traffic lights - Mirrors which reveal cyclists and pedestrians hidden in a lorry’s blind spot will be attached to traffic lights in a bid to improve safety at junctions in London. (Times)(Daily Telegraph)
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| May 2009 |
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| Foreign lorries accident rise - Accidents caused by foreign lorries on Britain’s roads have increased by 10 per cent in the past year, according to figures from the Accident Exchange. (Daily Telegraph) |
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| Police cars cause nine accidents a day – More than nine accidents a day are caused by police cars, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. RoSPA said forces should look into the causes of accidents to see how they could be prevented from happening again. (Nationals) |
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Running on empty - The Police Federation has announced that driving while tired is the biggest killer of officers in England and Wales. The federation says that since 2000, more than 40 officers have died while driving to or from work. The BBC News Website has a feature about the effect of driving while tired. (BBC News Website)
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| April 2009 |
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| Road safety strategy consultation – The Department for Transport has launched a consultation on a road safety strategy to run from 2010-2020. Targets include reducing deaths on Britain’s roads by a third. Among the proposals are the introduction of more 20mph zones in residential areas and reducing the speed limit on some rural roads from 60mph to 50mph. The document said that a move to Single Double Summer Time, an issue about which RoSPA campaigns, could save more than 1,500 lives over 20 years, but that the subject fell outside the scope of the consultation. RoSPA welcomed the strategy’s “ambitious” casualty reduction targets and said 20mph zones had been proven to be effective at reducing road deaths and injuries when introduced in residential areas. Proposed changes to the driving test have also been announced, including the introduction of a driving syllabus. (Nationals, Channel 4 News Website) |
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| Young drivers not ready for work – RoSPA’s Young Drivers at Work project found that employers would welcome the development of a new driving for work qualification because they felt the current learner driver training and testing process did not adequately prepare young people for getting behind the wheel as part of their jobs. (Guardian, Telegraph website) |
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| Breaches cost licence - A haulage firm which broke rules on tachographs and drivers’ hours has been banned from operating. Denbighshire-based LE Jones LTD, which employs 100 people, will have its licence revoked next month after an investigation found “clear unlawful activity” by operators and drivers. (BBC News Website) |
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| Fine for death taxi driver - A speeding cabbie who killed a teenager on a pedestrian crossing was fined £500 after being found guilty of careless driving. The private hire driver hit the 18-year-old at 42mph in a 30mph zone in Barnsley after working a 14-hour shift. The victim’s parents are campaigning for regulations on the length of time taxi drivers can work for, although the driver insisted he was not tired. (Daily Express) |
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| March 2009 |
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Crash-prone driver unfairly dismissed – A bus driver who was sacked after having ten crashes in two years has won compensation for unfair dismissal. LMS Travel Ltd of Worcester saw its insurance premium rise from £22,000 to £35,000 per year due to the accidents. The 56-year-old driver won his case for unfair dismissal because the firm had failed to carry out the correct disciplinary and dismissal procedures, and he was awarded £483. He said he had not had any problems as a driver until he was diagnosed with diabetes, which sometimes caused him to fall unconscious. (B’ham Post)
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| Smart cars do the thinking – A Government-funded research project is underway into vehicle technology that allows a car to decide when to brake and accelerate. The system, called Sentience, uses an on-board computer to read a digital map of the road network containing information on speed limits, hills, chicanes and speed humps. It can also detect if a green traffic light is about to turn red. The system can be overridden by a driver if, for example, a pedestrian steps out and sudden braking is required. The hope is that journeys will be safer and more fuel efficient due to the smooth driving style. (Times) |
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| Arrest after refuse collector killed – A 43-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving after a teenage refuse collector was killed by his own recycling lorry. The 18-year-old was struck by the lorry in Rugeley, Staffordshire. (B’ham Post) |
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| February 2009 |
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| Jobs ban for speeding glazier – A glazier who clocked up nine points for speeding in five years has been banned from working at police stations. The Mansfield man has been barred from working at Nottinghamshire Police stations because the force does not employ external staff with more than seven points on their licence. (Birmingham Post) |
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| January 2009 |
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| Christmas drink-drive figures – The latest drink-drive figures show an 11 per cent increase in the proportion of under-25s failing breath tests over the Christmas period. RoSPA said the “disappointing” rise showed the battle against drink driving was “never-ending.” (Nationals) |
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| Trucker jailed for bookie’s death – A truck driver who admitted causing death by dangerous driving has been jailed for 20 months at Cardiff Crown Court. The trucker’s 38-tonne articulated lorry toppled over and crushed a car, killing a 69-year-old bookmaker, as it was driven round a roundabout at 30mph. (BBC News Website) |
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| Government defends hard-shoulder plans – Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon has defended the Government’s decision to extend hard-shoulder running instead of adding new lanes to congested motorways. Some ministers had wanted to add an extra lane to parts of the M6, M1, M62 and M25, but Mr Hoon said hard-shoulder running on those routes would save the Government £5bn. (Nationals) |
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| Speeding MP banned – Plaid Cymru’s parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd MP has been banned from driving for a month after admitting speeding. Police said they spotted Llwyd driving at 101mph on the A487 in Gwynedd, which has a 60mph limit. Caernarfon Magistrates’ Court banned him and ordered Llwyd to pay £675 in fines and costs despite his solicitor claiming a ban would affect the way he could “serve his electorate”. (BBC News Website) |
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| Volunteer fined for patient death – A Welsh Ambulance Service volunteer driver has been fined £195 after a patient died in a crash. Caernarfon Magistrates’ Court also gave the volunteer six penalty points after he admitted careless driving. The patient was not wearing his seatbelt. (BBC News Website) |
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| Eye tests for drivers – The Times has a piece about DVLA proposals to toughen up sight regulations for drivers, including that they take more eye tests. |
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| Overladen van caused crash death – A Birmingham headteacher who died in six-car pile-up on the M5 last May was unlawfully killed by the “massively overloaded van”, which landed on his car, a coroner said. The van was overladen with beer barrels by almost 40 per cent. It crashed when a bald rear tyre burst, killing the headteacher and the van driver and his wife. Verdict on headteacher and van driver’s wife: unlawful killing. Verdict on van driver: accidental death. (Birmingham Post) |
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| Ten hurt as bus crashes into shop - Ten people were injured when a double-decker bus collided with a van and then careered into a shop. Eight passengers and both drivers needed hospital treatment after the crash in west London. (BBC News) |
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| December 2008 |
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| Driver arrested after M6 pile-up - A Dutch lorry driver is being held on suspicion of dangerous driving after a pile-up on the M6 in Birmingham left another HGV driver critically ill and caused parts of the motorway to be shut for 13 hours. (BBC News Website) December 12-15, 2008 |
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| Three people a month die in police car chases - A coroner has called for police to show more caution in high speed chases after revealing they have led to the deaths of more than 200 people. West Somerset coroner Michael Rose was speaking at the inquest of pensioner Christopher Mollan, who died on a country lane when his car was hit by a police BMW. He recorded a verdict of accidental death and said the officer driving the car, who was responding to reports of a man with a handgun, was not to blame. (Daily Telegraph) December 5 - 8, 2008 |
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| Speed cameras hit over-60s hardest – Older drivers are six times more likely to be fined for speeding than a decade ago, DfT research shows. There was a 540 per cent increase in the number of male offenders over 60, and a 1,200 per cent increase for women, between 1997-99 and 2003-05. The report’s author said it may be because unlike a police officer, speed cameras have no discretion to issue a rebuke. (Times) December 4, 2008 |
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| Van driver killed in lorry smash – A man was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving following a crash in Devon between a 26 tonne lorry and a van in which the van driver was killed. (BBC News Website) December 2 - 3, 2008 |
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Home visits to reduce road deaths – Grampian police are visiting the homes of young people who persistently drive irresponsibly. It is a bid to reduce road deaths in the area which has the worst record for serious accidents involving young drivers in Scotland. (BBC News Website)
December 2 -3, 2008 |
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| Hangover, thirst and tiredness dangers – Research by Brunel University and insurers RSA showed driving with a hangover is four times more dangerous than being sober. The research also found that a poor night’s sleep, low blood sugar and dehydration have negative effects on driving ability. Separate research at the University of Utah found that chatting on a hands-free set was more distracting to drivers than conversations with passengers. (Nationals)
December 1, 2008 |
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Bus hits four women after driver, 71, collapses at wheel – R & B Travel bus driver Alan Taylor died at the scene in Ludlow after he collapsed at the wheel, sending the bus onto the pavement and into four women. Two of the women are in a serious condition in hospital and the other two were treated for minor injuries. (BBC News Website)
December 1, 2008
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| November 2008 |
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M25 coach deaths driver jailed – National Express driver Philip Rooney, 49, was jailed for five years after admitting causing three deaths by dangerous driving.
He crashed while travelling at 55mph on a 40mph slip road on the M4/M25, near Heathrow Airport, on a journey from Aberdeen to London.
Rooney, who had a history of speeding offences, was also banned from driving for three years. (Nationals) November 27, 2008
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| Four officers die in road accident - Four police officers were killed when their 4 x 4 left the road in County Down. (Nationals) November 20 - 25 2008 |
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| Fatal crash officers disciplined - Two police officers have been removed from traffic duties and given a warning for their part in a high-speed crash which killed a retired lecturer in Lancashire. The officers crashed into a car being driven by Peter Williams, 67, on a narrow country road while taking part in a high speed training exercise. (BBC News Website) November 20 - 25 2008 |
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| New road safety measures - Drivers could be banned after two speeding offences under new road safety measures proposed in a Government consultation. Extreme speeders could face six penalty points on their licence meaning two offences would result in disqualification. Ministers are also considering making it an offence to drive after consuming drugs, including some painkillers or insomnia drugs. (Nationals) November 20 - 25 2008 |
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| KILLER DRIVERS - The Daily Telegraph says prosecutors have been told to take a tougher line on dangerous driving after a review found that motorists who killed have escaped a prison sentence. HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate has concluded that drivers who kill because of a single split-second error or lapse of judgement can and should be charged with causing death by dangerous driving, which can lead to jail. November 13, 2008 |
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FUEL RISE "SAVED LIVES" - High fuel prices helped to save 140 lives this year because motorists slowed down and drove less aggressively to save money, according to analysis by the AA. The fall in deaths in April, May and June was the biggest in any three-month period for 20 years. (Times)
November 7-11, 2008 |
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| BROKEN-BACK MAN'S INSURANCE PAIN - The victim of a car crash has been forced to return to work weeks after his back was broken in a car crash because the 20-year-old driver who hit his vehicle was uninsured. His own vehicle was a company car and did not have cover for personal injury. He was in a crash with a Portuguese national who was driving at 80mph in a built-up area of Ipswich. The 20-year-old was sent to a young offenders' institute for 16 months after he admitted dangerous driving and driving without a licence. (D. Tel) Tuesday-Thursday, Nov 4-6, 2008 |
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October 2008 |
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BST BACKING - Lord Jones of Birmingham has backed the campaign to have lighter evenings all year round because it would help businesses and save lives. The former head of the CBI was speaking in the House of Lords. His remarks back RoSPA's campaign for a new system for changing the clocks to save lives and reduce injuries on our roads. (B'ham Post) October 30-31, 2008 |
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| ROAD SAFETY REPORT - The House of Commons Transport Committee has issued a report called Ending the Complacency: Road Safety Beyond 2010. RoSPA welcomed recommendations for more HSE action on managing occupational road risk and for lowering the drink-drive limit. October 28-29, 2008 |
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| LIGHTER EVENINGS - RoSPA has renewed its call for a three-year time trial to show that lighter evenings all year round will save lives and reduce injuries on Britain's roads. Oct 21-24, 2008 |
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| DRINK-DRIVE LIMIT REMAINS - The Times says the Government has decided against reducing the drink-drive limit, despite pleas from safety groups, including RoSPA. Thursday, October 2 - Monday, October 6, 2008 |
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| JERSEY "NO" TO TIME CHANGE - A referendum in Jersey has resulted in a 72 per cent vote against the island changing to Central European Time. RoSPA supported the plan and would like to see a change throughout the whole of the UK because it would bring road safety benefits by having lighter evenings all year round. (BBC News Website) Oct 14-16, 2008 |
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| DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION - An RAC survey shows that radios and CDs are most likely to distract drivers. About a third of drivers say they are seriously distracted by sat-nav systems and mobile phones. Heating controls and air conditioning also cause problems. (D. Tel) Oct 14-16, 2008 |
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| ZERO ALCOHOL CALL - Tayside NHS Trust says newly-qualified drivers should not be allowed to drink a single drop of alcohol before getting behind the wheel October 13, 2008 |
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| ACCIDENT DEATHS OFF TARGET - Figures from the Department of Health show no progress has been made in cutting accident deaths in spite of improvements in road death figures. Death rates are 0.3 per cent higher than 10 years ago. The 20 per cent target reduction for 2009-11 set by the Government four years ago will be widely missed on present trends. Deaths from cancer, heart disease and suicide are falling fast. (Independent) October 7-8, 2008 |
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| POLICE SLAMMED FOR SPEED TRAINING "COMPLACENCY" - A Liverpool Crown Court jury has accused Lancashire police of "institutionalised complacency" over a high-speed training exercise that ended in an innocent motorist's death. A police officer was found guilty of careless driving after his vehicle crossed on to the wrong side of a country lane and struck another car at 94mph, killing the driver. He was testing in-car Vascar equipment by chasing a car driven by another officer at up to 104mph. The jury has submitted a note to Lancashire Constabulary saying: "We believe Lancashire police were guilty of institutionalised complacency with regards to training and driving at high speeds on open, public roads." (Guardian, D. Tel) October 7-8, 2008 |
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| TRIPLE RISK TEENS - Teenage drivers are three times as likely to have a fatal crash if they are travelling with a group of friends as when driving alone, according to a study by the Association of British Insurers. The greatest danger is posed during the first 30 weeks after passing their test. After that period, the risk that they will cause death or serious injury halves. The association wants all drivers under 20 to be limited to carrying no more than one teenage passenger for the first six months after they pass their driving test. Ford is bringing in a system in America which will enable parents to limit the speed at which their teenage children can drive their car. It uses a computer chip in the car key. (Times) October 7-8, 2008 |
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TAXI FOR BOBBY! - West Midlands Police Federation wants officers to be allowed to use free taxis to take them home after night shifts. It follows research showing 17 police officers in England and Wales have been killed while driving home from night shifts since 2003. (S. Mercury)
October 2 - Monday October 6, 2008
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| FASTER BAN - Drivers who speed to excess will be banned from the road after just two offences, under changes expected to be announced by the Government soon. Those who go 15mph over the limit in urban areas or 25mph too fast on motorways will get six penalty points, meaning they will hit the 12-point trigger for a ban after two convictions. (Express) Oct 1, 2008 |
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