UK driver fined for hogging lane

A British motorist has been fined for driving too slowly in the middle lane of a highway. File photo: Regis Duvignau.

A British motorist has been fined for driving too slowly in the middle lane of a highway. File photo: Regis Duvignau.

Published Jun 22, 2015

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London - A van driver is believed to have become the first motorist ever to be convicted in court of “hogging” the middle lane of a motorway.

The unnamed driver was caught in his Citroen Berlingo at 60mph (96km/h) on the M62 near Huddersfield and refused to move into the inside lane when it was free.

He has now received five points on his licence and a £940 (R18 000) fine in what is understood to be the first such conviction since police were given more powers to tackle careless driving in 2013.

Police said the van driver caused six other motorists to brake and swerve to overtake his vehicle as it headed eastbound near Junction 23 last August.

Leeds magistrates heard that the driver, who failed to attend court, had had several opportunities to move back into the left-hand lane.

He was ordered to pay a £500 fine, £400 in costs and a £40 victim surcharge in his absence.

The conviction comes nearly two years after police were first given the power to hand a £90 (R1735) spot fine and three penalty points to motorists caught middle-lane hogging, tailgating or using the wrong lane on a roundabout.

Before the powers were introduced in August 2013, most careless driving offences were only issued with a warning with no further action.

TOO MUCH RED TAPE

Ministers said at the time that such offences were going unpunished because of the bureaucracy involved in taking them to court. At the time, an AA survey of 20 000 motorists found that one in three could be caught out hogging the middle lane.

Similar research by the motoring group the following year found nearly a third of motorists had changed their driving style, although only three-quarters surveyed said they had noticed a change in other drivers’ habits.

PC Nigel Fawcett-Jones, from the road policing unit of West Yorkshire Police, said: “Lane hogging causes congestion and inconvenience to other road users. It reduces the capacity of roads and motorways, and can lead to dangerous situations where other drivers ‘tailgate’ the vehicle in front to try and get the lane hogger to move over.

“Members of the public regularly tell the road policing unit that lane-hogging and tailgating are real problems on our roads and this conviction shows that the police and the courts understand the public’s concerns and take this offence seriously.”

But critics have previously described the changes as a return to the “war on the motorist” by a Government intent on using drivers as a “cash cow”. They also warned of a string of appeals by drivers who feel they are being unfairly targeted.

Robert Gifford, executive director of the parliamentary advisory council on transport safety, said: “There’s a risk of motorists feeling picked on.”

RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister said he was happy to see the powers being used but hoped they would be applied consistently across the country.

He said: “As with using mobiles at the wheel and drink-driving, it is not enough to outlaw anti-social behaviour on the roads. People need to believe they will get caught. Figures suggest in several areas they won’t.”

Daily Mail

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