Archive for the ‘Motoring & Driving News’ Category
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
According to the World Health Organisation, road traffic crashes are now the second biggest killer in the world after AIDS. More than 1.25 million people die on the world’s roads every year. In the time it takes you to read this paragraph, two more people will have died and 35 will have been seriously injured.
Road safety is not a national problem – it is an international problem. SAFEX 2008 asks the question: what are the world’s governments doing to address this global catastrophe?
SAFEX 2008, organised by road safety experts IVV and sponsored by the DIA, is the only world road safety conference to target driver trainers and driver education and provide a truly international perspective to the issues involved in reducing the number of deaths on the world’s roads.
SAFEX 2008 is coming back to London after many years. The conference offers opportunities to meet old friends and make new contacts with road safety practitioners, academics, politicians, key researchers and members of the driver training industry from around the world.
The Driver Education World Conference is being held in London from the 16th-18th May inclusive. More information can be found at http://www.ivvsafex.com/
Posted in Motoring & Driving News
Friday, March 28th, 2008
More motorists are accepting safety cameras as part of life on the road, according to an IAM Motoring Trust Survey. Of 500 motorists questioned, 78 per cent approved of ‘speed cameras’ – up 9 per cent from 2007 (but still down on the near 90 per cent approval they received in 1999). However, there is still a strong suspicion that ‘speed cameras’ are not installed for pure safety reasons and doubt about the prime aim and outcome of ‘speed cameras’ remains strong:
- only 36 per cent (1 per cent more than 2007) believed that cameras were positioned only at serious crash sites, and
- only 39 per cent (3 per cent fewer than 2007) believed that raising revenue was not the motive for using ‘speed’ cameras.
Kevin Delaney, Head of Road Safety for the IAM Trust says, “This survey confirms a recent downward trend in numbers of drivers being caught by safety cameras*”. Hopefully, it is because more believe that safety cameras save lives, but it could be to do with motorists becoming more aware of where cameras are sited. Either way, the trends are good news for road safety.
“Since April 2007, the money raised from speed cameras can fund a range of road safety schemes – including more safety cameras. Breaking the link between revenue and enforcement is a vital first step in regaining public confidence in the speed limit enforcement.”
* The number of motorists who said they, or a member of their household, had been flashed and fined fell from 28 per cent in 2007 to 20 per cent in 2008 (18 per cent in 2002).
This article has been reproduced with the permission of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)
Posted in Motoring & Driving News
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
All new cars are to be fitted with automatic daytime headlights within four years.
The Government previously opposed the idea on the grounds that using lights in the daytime would increase fuel consumption and emissions, but conceded it was unable to oppose European legislation.
In response to a parliamentary question, Jim Fitzpatrick, the road safety minister, said: “The UK has been successful in arguing against the introduction of mandatory use of dipped headlamps during daylight hours by drivers of existing vehicles.
“However, from early 2011 all new types of passenger cars and light vans will have to be fitted with dedicated daytime running lamps in accordance with the relevant European directive. By summer 2012, all new vehicles will have to be so fitted.”
The move will anger motoring groups, which claim fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions increase by three per cent when drivers use dipped lights.
But the European Commission says that the lights increase fuel consumption by only 0.3 per cent because they use separate bulbs that are less bright than headlights.
The commission wants all European Union states to set a common date to make daytime running lights mandatory. About half of EU member states already require this.
Posted in Motoring & Driving News
Sunday, January 20th, 2008
Young motorists who break the law could be sent on “assessed drives” to improve their skills in a bid to change their behaviour behind the wheel.
A pilot scheme in Dumfries and Galloway would see drivers go for an hour’s tuition with an advanced motorist.
They would then report back to the procurator fiscal on the young person’s driving ability and attitude.
Depending on the contents of the report it could then be decided that there was no need for formal prosecution.
Depute procurator fiscal Lyndsay Hunter said the idea provided an important extension to the range of options.
She said that if prosecution failed to bring about a change in driving behaviour then they needed to consider alternatives.
The scheme will start in the Stewartry area and, if successful, will be rolled out across the region.
‘Physical risks’
Insp John Thomson, of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, said the key was to improve driver safety.
“The primary objective of any road policing policy is to reduce crashes,” he said.
He said that enforcement and improved road design had a part to play.
“However, we fully appreciate the benefits of heavily investing in driver education and believe that this scheme presents a positive means of reducing the crash rate in our area,” he said.
“Experience has demonstrated that there is a significant minority of young drivers who aren’t deterred by the physical risks or criminal consequences of high risk driving and it is these drivers that the scheme is aimed at.”
The scheme is being funded by Dumfries and Galloway Council.
The BBC
Posted in Motoring & Driving News
