Safe Speed Forums

See this DVLA PR:

DVLA ACCIDENT ALERT

Over 300,000 drivers could be risking serious accidents because they have
failed to update the information on their driving documents, according to
figures from the DVLA.

Over one million vehicles with safety defects are recalled and reworked by
manufacturers each year, with information about the registered keeper used
to trace defective vehicles. Currently 32% of vehicle registration
certificates (V5C) contain inaccurate information and if owners cannot be
traced and informed that their vehicles are defective it can result in
serious accidents on the road.

Drivers are being urged to help reduce the risk of accidents on UK roads by
checking that their vehicle registration certificate is accurate and
up-to-date. Road safety initiatives such as the 'Vehicle Safety Defects'
recall scheme depend on the accuracy of information provided by individuals.
The scheme, supervised by the Vehicle & Operator Services Agency (VOSA),
uses keeper information provided by DVLA to trace affected vehicles.
Drivers are being encouraged to 'Update Your Details' and help improve road
safety.

Jeffrey Sweeting, Vehicle Safety Branch Manager at VOSA said: "It is in the
public's own best interest to ensure that information held on their driving
documents are accurate, so they can be notified quickly of any safety defect
affecting their vehicle. Safety defects can cause fatal accidents, so the
onus really is on the motorist to take responsibility for their vehicle, and
make sure the information held by DVLA is up to date."

'Update Your Details' is part of an existing Government campaign to reduce
death and serious injury on the road by 40% by 2010. The scheme will help
ensure that vehicles on the road are safe and do not pose a risk to others.

Any work carried out on recalled vehicles is free of charge. Information on
how to update the driving licence and vehicle registration document can be
found at www.directgov.uk/motoring or at the Post Office®

Paul Watters, Head of Motoring Policy at the AA Motoring Trust added:
"Remembering to keep driving licence and vehicle records up to date with
DVLA is something every motorist has a responsibility to do. It could
safeguard you against a potentially serious defect by making sure you can be
contacted if a common fault is uncovered in similar vehicles. It's in every
motorist's interest."

End

Safe Speed issued this PR at 10pm Friday:

PR223: DVLA record chaos

News: for immediate release

In an astonishing admission of ineptitude the DVLA appear to be warning that
they are on the verge of losing control of the vehicle registration process -
an astonishing 32% of vehicle records contain incorrect information.

In a recently issued press release the DVLA cited the need to for owners to
receive product recall notices as the reason for people to observe
registration requirements. Safe Speed believes that their PR is pure
desperation!

Only about 1% of accidents result from mechanical failure, and far fewer than
that result from failures associated with product recall notices. Even with
the gross errors at DVLA, many recall defects will be picked up in routine
servicing. Safe Speed estimates the crash potential from the defective DVLA
records at well under 10 crashes per year - and it may well be zero.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "The truth is that the more we load up the
motoring public with endless and needless fines for speeding, parking
and congestion charging, the more they are going to find themselves better off
staying outside the system."

"While I'm sure that errors at DVLA must take some of the blame, it should
have been completely obvious to policy makers that automated and
indiscriminate enforcement would have incorrect registration information as a
side effect."

"This situation will not improve until the Government admits its errors and
embraces road users in policies that improve ordinary peoples' travelling
experience. They must learn to consider the side effects of their policies."

"Automated and indiscriminate enforcement has created a giant underclass of
outlaw road users who find that evading registration requirements is very much
in their interests. It was reckless and careless of Government to create this
situation."

"Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is all set to become another
shattered dream due to faulty registration records."

<ends>

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

I must admit disposable motoring has it's attractions.

I reckon I'd be over 10 grand better off after 5 years

even more if I didn't pay for petrol either

Press statement: DVLA

Research has shown that if you pull faces there is a significant risk of it staying like that if the wind changes.