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Two articles caught my attention last week. The proposals to make fixed penalty notices available for careless driving, and the plans to radically revamp new driver laws in Northern Ireland.
The fixed penalty notices would give the police greater flexibility in dealing with less serious careless driving offences and will be £90 with three points on the driver's licence.
The Northern Ireland proposals include lowering the provisional licence age to 16 and a half, but introducing a mandatory minimum learning period of 12 months for provisional licence holders.
The post-test period would be increased from one to two years, while new drivers up to 24 years old will not be allowed to carry young passengers (aged 14 to 20, except immediate family members) during their first six months on the road, unless there is a supervising driver over 21, with three years full licence as a passenger.
In principle they both sound like excellent initiatives. Young drivers are extremely vulnerable and any measures that can reduce the road deaths of this age group are warmly welcomed.
As for careless driving, again, it would be a great step forward if the Government was able to reduce much of the dangerous driving on our roads that leads to completely avoidable accidents and injury.
But aren't these quite grey areas when it comes to policing them?
If we take speeding for example, that's fairly clear cut. You're either over the limit or you're not. Easy for evidence. Simple for the courts. Ultimately straightforward.
But what is deemed as careless driving? If you are following the vehicle in front too closely, will that incur points and a fine?
And if so, how close do you need to be? If you drift towards another vehicle in a neighbouring lane on the motorway, is that careless?
In both cases the driver could argue in court that he/she was about to overtake, hence had got closer to the vehicle in front.
Or that they'd drifted lanes slightly because they were in the centre lane and the vehicle to their left had moved towards them.
These are loose examples but its going to be very hard for this not to be subjective with every case open for dispute.
And with disputes come expense, administration and even more aggravation for the police.
As for the Northern Ireland proposals, what would stop a 16 ½ year old applying for their provisional licence then not using it for nine months and cramming lessons into the final three months to pass their test?
And would the police really be expected to pull over every young driver who has a passenger with them to check that they are family?
It sounds like I'm being negative. I promise you I'm not. If we could make such measures work I'd be delighted.
But once again I feel the Government is using road safety as a PR gimmick and I'm becoming very tired of this.
They know that these proposals make them look good. They also know that they are so vague that there will be a very long and drawn out debate about how they would work in practice, and that they are highly unlikely to be implemented in the format suggested.
And all of this at a time when we scarcely see a police officer on our roads anyway! Quite simply, I've seen it all before. And yet again I feel they are paying lip service with people's lives.
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