On 30/12/2023 01:48 pm, Simon Mason wrote:
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request has found that nearly 10,000 people annually have been convicted of driving while disqualified over the past four years, leading to calls for more resources to be devoted to roads policing, and for stronger action
to be taken against those who get behind the steering wheel without a valid driving licence.
The correct term for them is "fully unqualified chav-cyclists", since chav-cycles are the only vehicles they are allowed to use (and that only because no knowledge, training or familiarity with the rules of the road
is required for the use of a chav-cycle).
Sky News reports (link is external) that the FoI request submitted to the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) by the Press Association discovered that 37,500 people were convicted of driving while banned over the past four years – with one
person caught doing so no fewer than 20 times.
See below.
In all, around 8,000 of those caught – nearly one in four – were repeat offenders, having committed the offence more than once.
See below.
Edmund King, president of the motoring organisation the AA, urged for more resources to be given to traffic policing, an area in which budgets have been slashed over the past decade or so.
He said that putting more traffic police on the roads would be a clear signal to law-breaking drivers that they would be targeted, and “increase the perception they are more likely to be caught.”
King added that the fall in the number of traffic police officers over the past decade “needs to be reversed to keep our roads safe.”
The article also quoted senior Metropolitan Police Service officer Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Cox, who is the national lead for fatal road crashes at the National Police Chiefs’ Council and also regularly raises funds for the charity
RoadPeace.
He took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to share the full text of the quote he had supplied.
“Disqualified drivers have already committed road crimes, endangering safety in a manner sufficient to lose their licence,” DCS Cox wrote.
“Those individuals who continue to drive whilst disqualified brazenly ignore the punishment handed down to them, and in doing so risk the safety of themselves and others.
“These selfish lawbreaking actions can have fatal consequences, needlessly cutting lives short and causing lifelong trauma for bereaved families.
“The public understandably expects these serious offences to be recognised as such when habitual disqualified drivers are brought to justice.
“Via deterrence we can reduce danger on our roads and ultimately save lives,” he added.
Lifetime bans from driving are extremely rare, even in the most shocking cases.
One that we reported on here on road.cc was handed down in 2010 after lorry driver Dennis Putz was convicted of causing the death by dangerous driving of cyclist Catriona Patel near the Oval cricket ground in south London.
Puts, who was still intoxicated after a drinking session the previous evening, had been using a handheld mobile phone at the time of the fatal crash.
He had previously been convicted twice of driving-related offences, including one in which he faced 16 counts of driving without a licence.
During the trial, it emerged that Putz had previously been disqualified from driving 20 times and also had three convictions for drink driving and three convictions for reckless driving.
Following sentencing, London Cycling Campaign highlighted the case in its No More Lethal Lorries campaign, and said that Putz’s employers, Thames Materials Ltd, “failed in their responsibility to protect the public” by employing
“We’ve been making the case for a long time that companies have a duty to ensure their drivers are competent and capable of doing their work in a way that doesn't endanger the public,” LCC said.
“This was a crash waiting to happen because the regulations are too lax and they're not properly enforced.”
https://road.cc/content/news/tougher-action-against-those-who-drive-while-banned-305885
Yes... unqualified and unlicenced chav-cyclists who purport to be
drivers need a spell inside. Guaranteed. Every time.
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