What's in the news...

Whilst 84% of drivers trapped by speed cameras are fined, if you happen to be in the police this drops to 0.5%. Only 354 of 90,000 police either captured speeding or jumping light in 2006 were actually convicted.

In a quarter of the cases the blue lights were flashing suggesting that they were attending an emergency but in the rest of the cases the possible fine and 6 points that the rest of us would have suffered was cleared by police managers.

Unlike the rest of us who would have to go to court the police have the ability to simply cancel the ticket if they can be convinced by a 'good reason'.

At SaferMotoring we believe that unless it is an emergency the Police should adhere to the law just like the rest of us which means taking the points and paying the fine!

We've covered the subject of wearing safe footwear when driving on this site and the topic has come to light in a recent court case. Julie Hunter was testing-driving an Alfa Romeo Spyder when the car spun onto the opposite carriageway and hit a cyclist who died immediately.

Ms Hunter was driving at 50mph in a 30mph zone which was too fast for the road conditions. A crash investigator confirmed there had been no mechanical faults with the car, but he also commented that: "Hunter's 'very high' heels may have inhibited the defendant's ability to drive".

The judge in the case Anthony Goldstaub QC, commented that : "Apart from the dangers of speed itself, there was the added peril that the driver was not familiar with this car's particular handling characteristics, or what the bite of its controls were and she wore high heel shoes unsuitable for the operation of the pedals."

Experts at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) who recently carried out a 40mph crash test said that in real life such a crash would leave occupants with 'life-threatening injuries'.

This comes after fears were highlighted about this type of mini-car which is classed as a 'quadricycle' and is exempt from standard safety test regulations.

In the test the TRL were so concerned about the test that they refused to risk one of their £130,000 sophisticated electronic dummies. Instead they opted for a more basic model which, after the crash, had it's lower legs trapped and the thorax was removed separately.

All new cars will have to be fitted with an anti-skidding device if EU proposals are accepted. ESC (Electronic Stability Control) detects a potential skid and applies the brakes to the appropriate wheel helping to keep the car under control.

Most luxury cars already come with ESC fitted, but many smaller, cheaper models do not have it fitted as standard. Gunther Verhuegen of the European Commission is proposing the obligatory introduction of ESC on all passenger cars in 2007. There is no known deadline as yet.

Confusion has arisen amongst car owners as ESC comes under different brand names such as ESP (Electronic Stability Programme) and DSC (Dynamic Stability Control).

Cars with ESC are 22% less likely to crash than those without it and it's thought that if ESC were fitted on 90% of Britain's cars it would save 400 lives a year and prevent 3000 serious injuries.

We'd never accuse the goverment or our local council of being greedy but nationally over £1.2bn of parking fines were handed out in the last 12 months. Now they want more and Transport for London (TfL) decided that they didn't actually require you to be there to issue a ticket - sending the ticket through the post would be good for them.

They tried this on Simeon Ademolake, a London coucillor, who received his ticket through the post after stopping his car briefly on a red route. He disputed the charge and took it to the independent adjudicator, the Parking and Appeals Service which ruled in his favour. TfL challenged this but, on March 27th, 2007, the High Court ruled that Mr Ademolake was not obliged to pay the fine.

So the bottom line is that Tickets must be served on the spot and that Penalty Notices served through the post are invalid. Feel free to drive away while the Parking Attendant is writing the ticket and smile!