December 2004, letter to Roger
Casale MP
Road Safety Bill
First off: MCC welcomes most of the Bill, in particular the sections on Mobile Phones, Safety camera detectors and jammers, and Evidential breath testing. However, we are very concerned about the intention to reduce the penalties for speeding up to 39mph in a 30mph limit. This is damaging and sending the wrong message to motorists.
Driving
at 39 mph in a built up area or through a village is far more likely to kill
than driving at 85 mph on a motorway.
Yet the former would only incur 2 points on a licence and a £40 fine,
whilst the latter would incur 6 points on a licence and a £100 fine. A driver is twice as likely to kill a
pedestrian or cyclist if they hit them at 35mph instead of 30mph, and 2/3 of
casualties and fatalities occur in built up areas where speeding, even
slightly, can greatly increase the risk of causing serious injury.
It
is worth noting that drink-drivers, responsible for 500 deaths a year, face
serious fines and penalties, including automatic loss of licence. Yet
speeding-drivers who are a major contributory factor in 1,000 deaths a year
only face three penalty points and a fine. To lower this already low limit is
scandalous.
We
believe the Bill should be amended in the following way: the introduction of Graduated Fixed penalty
points should start at the existing base-line of 3 points and any graduation
should be an increase on this 3 points. Under no circumstances should fewer
than 3 points be issued for any speeding offence.
Finally,
we believe that this bill lacks vision and is missing a golden opportunity to
bring road safety legislation in line with other European countries. MCC is therefore supporting the Transport
2000 campaign to push for an amendment to the bill for an assumption that a
driver, who hits a child or elderly person, will be liable for personal injury claims.
Best
regards
Richard
Evans
Merton
Cycling Campaign