Safe Speed Forums

Drop this daft change on driving laws

There is an entirely sensible distinction in motoring law between careless and dangerous driving.

The law rightly acknowledges that momentary misjudgements on the part of responsible and careful drivers are not the same as reckless acts.

We are all occasionally careless and it is a matter of luck rather than judgement what happens.

One person will drop a saucepan of boiling water and the only thing to suffer will be the kitchen floor, another will drop it just as a child runs in with devastating consequences. You can be concentrating fiercely o a difficult task and still ruin it if something startles you.

We must therefore treat proposals to re-categorise some offences from careless to dangerous driving with considerable caution. It is fair enough to penalise the driver who uses a hand-held mobile or starts applying make-up behind the wheel of a moving car.

But switching radio channels? You take one hand off the wheel briefly to change gear, flick an indicator or adjust the heater, so why not to press a radio knob?

If the law is not moderate it will be disobeyed on a scale which will make enforcement impossible at a time when the police are overstretched.

Dangerous must mean deliberate or reckless. Any other definition is daft.