Not for publication before 00:01AM Wednesday 6th December 2006
NEARLY 4 MILLION DRIVERS WOULD SWAP PENALTY POINTS
A staggering 3.7 million* motorists - 12% of the drivers on UK roads - would ask a relative or friend to take speed camera penalty points for them if they were facing a driving ban, a new nationwide poll by Swinton
has revealed.
The Ipsos MORI poll, commissioned by leading high street insurance broker Swinton, also revealed that 13% of drivers would take points from a partner or relative to prevent them from being banned from driving.
Drivers were asked the questions based on the assumption that they or their friends already had six points and were photographed by a speed camera positioned behind the vehicle so that the identity of the driver
could not be confirmed.
The figure for potential 'penalty point swapping' rises to 20% among the under-24s. This falls to just 4% of over-55s who would consider asking someone to take their points and 8% of over-55s stating they would
consider taking them on behalf of a friend or relative.
However, the same poll revealed high levels of honesty among UK motorists towards another illegal act, with 93% of drivers saying they would not drive away from a minor accident such as clipping someone's
bumper while reversing.
These contrasting figures reflect the attitude of some UK drivers that the trading of penalty points is a less serious offence than other motoring transgressions.
Such figures indicate that some drivers view speed cameras as being positioned to inflict financial penalties, rather than actually deter motorists from speeding and breaking the law.
The Swinton poll goes some way to confirming what up to now has been an urban myth that a black market could be emerging in the trading of speed camera penalty points.
Nick Bowyer from Swinton said: "This is potentially a serious problem which needs to be addressed. From a motor insurance point of view, it means that brokers like Swinton could be insuring some drivers who
otherwise might have been banned from getting behind the wheel altogether. There is only so much checking the insurance brokers can do.
"Until a few years ago many insurance brokers would increase premiums for drivers with as few as 3 penalty points. Today however, we look at each case individually and do not automatically increase insurance
premiums when our customers exceed 6 points acquired through speed camera traps."
There are distinct regional attitudes to such an illegal move. East Midlands (6%), Eastern England (8%) and the North East (8%) are the regions less likely to ask for their points to be swapped. The biggest potential
cheats are in the South West where 20% would ask someone to take their points, and in the South East where 18% of drivers admitted they would consider taking points from someone else.
The survey also found that men at 13% were slightly more likely to ask someone to take their points than women.
Speeding motorists face a minimum of 3 points if caught by cameras, with 12 points attracting an automatic ban in many cases.
Earlier this year a YOUGOV survey found that nearly five and a half million UK drivers have points on their license, 8% issued by police and the rest from speed cameras. It also calculated that 750,000 drivers
currently have six points, with 160,000 having amassed nine.
(*Figures from Ipsos MORI Financial Services omnibus show that there are currently 31m insured adults aged over 16 in England, Scotland and Wales )
(*DVLA records up to October 2006, current photocard license holders held by people aged 16-99 years old = 24,713,540. A further 17 million people hold paper driving licences).
ENDS
***
Safe Speed issued the following EMBARGOED PR at 14:06 this afternoon:
PR417: Swinton survey reveals crisis of confidence in road safety law
news: strict embargo: 00:01 am Wednesday 6th December 2006
A survey released today by Swinton Insurances reveals that nearly 4 million
drivers would 'swap' licence points.
According to Swinton, "A staggering 3.7 million motorists - 12% of the drivers
on UK roads - would ask a relative or friend to take speed camera penalty
points for them if they were facing a driving ban."
Safe Speed says that this represents a massive crisis of confidence in road
safety law. The overuse of speed cameras has undermined faith all road safety
messages.
Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(
www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "The overuse of speed cameras is turning road
safety into a joke with tragic consequences. Speed enforcement has become a
ridiculous game of cat and mouse with motorists attempting to evade detection
or prosecution and the Police trying to catch as many as possible - all the
while this is going on road safety is forgotten. Real road safety isn't about
strict technical legal compliance. It's about active risk management by
millions of individual road users."
"Drivers are sleepwalking into serious criminal offences. Clearly they think
'it's only speeding', but when they lie on those official forms they may be
committing the offence of 'attempting to pervert the course of justice' which
frequently carries a prison sentence. However indications are that probably
over a million have done it already, while we think that less than 100 have
been caught and convicted."
"Speed cameras don't solve anything. They give false safety messages, distract
drivers from the road ahead, and fritter away vast budgets that could have been
spent on life-saving policies. They undermine confidence in official road
safety, in the police and in justice itself. And they certainly have not made
the roads safer. Speed cameras must be scrapped, and scrapped now."
<ends>
[I've moved this outside of the Clubhouse, now that the embargo allows wider publication. Actually I'm over 24 hours late. Sorry about that.]
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