Laws around child seats have often been a bit hazy and it’s been revealed that around three quarters of parents do not know the correct laws when it comes to child seats in cars according to a survey. This can be a danger as there are specific rules and guidelines for the reason of safety, having an incorrect car seat can end lives of children. It’s up to the driver to know the correct laws and precautions that are needed when it comes to having a car seat in the vehicle.
UK law states that children under the age of 12 or under the height of 4ft and 5in should use a child seat when travelling in a car although safety experts recommend that the UK law should be raised to 4ft and 11in a significant 6in difference they believe will improve safety. So how many people know of that rule? According to surveys not many, it has been found by the road safety charity Brake that only 26% of parents are familiar with the law and 5% of people have also admitted to never using a child or booster seat for their children which isn’t only against the law it’s extremely dangerous.

It is stated that every year more than 700 young children are killed or seriously injured on British roads, this is a serious figure which the government are wanting to tackle. Also another notable thing is that if a car seat is involved in a road accident no matter what it should be replaced as there may be unseen damage causing further risk if there is another serious accident.

The study also found that 27% of parents defy advice from the safety expert by buying and using a second hand booster seat and almost half of parents don’t even check if their child is using the appropriate seat for their size when travelling in a taxi or someone else’s car, these figures are scary as you never know if an accident will happen and young children are the most prone to death when it comes to such incidents. All deaths and serious injuries on the roads are preventable and as a parent you should take every necessary step in order to ensure your child’s safety.

Driving without an MOT puts you in risk of a fine of up to £1000 as well as it invalidating your insurance, dangerous stuff. So why has the Society of Motor Manufacturers and traders revealed that a third of motorists have driven a car knowing it has no MOT? There are a few common problems and errors that people make when it comes to being on time for their MOT. (more…)

Motorists outside of London currently pay approximately £70 at a maximum for a parking fine which is under an intense review. In London the price of a parking ticket is as much as £130 since Boris Johnston and Ken Livingstone increased the cap, this review could bring the first changes in parking fines outside of London since 2001. Just how much will the price of a parking ticket go up by however? The aim of Transport Secretary Norman Baker is to deter drivers from breaking parking laws as his current thoughts are that the fine of £70 doesn’t do the job. (more…)

We reported a few weeks back about the Government being pretty set to change the speed limit from the traditional 70mph and hiking it to 80mph, there seemed to be very little opposition to the change. Now however this has taken an apparent U-Turn with the current transport secretary saying that safety would be compromised. This however was strongly disagreed by Philip Hammond the former transport secretary who believes that the speed limit increase would save millions of pounds due to faster journey times as well as being safer. (more…)

The road safety minister has been quoted saying that raising the limit to 80mph on motorways is still firmly on the government’s current agenda. There is set to be three trails of the change in raising the speed limit in certain areas across the country, if the results are successful the change could be rolled out across the country. He also said that the trails are likely to take place in 2014 and said “my message, though, is that it [speed limit increase] has not been lost. Our philosophy is that we should have the right speed on the right road”.

The talk of a speed increase has come as many feel it would be more beneficial to both traffic and safety, the question that’s arising is why is such a change taking such a long time? The government constantly changes the speed in rural areas mostly in the form of reduction but they claim it’s a much more complex process to increase the speed as it’s a more dangerous thing to do, however this contradicts what they are saying about 80mph being less dangerous than say 50mph.

They realise that many people at the current speed limit still drive at 80mph despite the limit being 70 however they worry that if the limit was to increase to 80mph if people would drive at 90mph which could be a danger. This has seen controversy with many split opinions on whether the change is a good or bad thing for the safety of drivers some believe it would be more dangerous and worse for the environment but then some believe it’s a safer alternative than blanket rising which could cause several deaths and countless accidents, what’s your opinion on the subject? Will an increase be good or bad? We are yet to see.

Careless drivers could face an on the spot fine of £100 Stephen Hammond road safety minister revealed yesterday. This will give the police more flexibility when it comes to dealing with minor careless driving offences like middle lane hogging or tailgating which previously had to go through the courts for anything to happen. As well as the cost for being caught carelessly driving other driving offences are also set to rise in fines such as not wearing a seatbelt or using a mobile phone which are going to equal the £100 fine for careless driving. (more…)

After the recent discovery that two people involved in a minor road accident where the police were called only to realise that the people involved in the crash had outdated licences. These two cases where eventually dropped as it was found that they were incorrectly charged, but how can you mistake an outdated licence? The date is on the licence itself. Well it wasn’t a factor of getting the date wrong, their licences where out of date it was a different factor all together. (more…)