Drivers could face tougher penalties for not wearing seatbelts<\/p>\n
It's pretty routine for many of us: you get behind the wheel of your pride and joy, you click the seatbelt into position, and you set off.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, though, some people don't seem to have that habit – and now the government wants to crack down on them in a bid to make the roads safer for those of us who are able to follow the rules.<\/p>\n
The Department for Transport has announced that it is looking into introducing tougher penalties for drivers caught not wearing their seatbelt as part of a raft of new measures under the Road Safety Action Plan.<\/p>\n
Currently, there is simply a £100 fine for failure to wear a seatbelt, but the government wants to introduce penalty points on the driving licences of those who flout the law too.<\/p>\n
Statistics show that 27 per cent of car deaths in 2017 involved people who were not wearing a seatbelt, an increase of seven per cent on the previous year.<\/p>\n
This suggests the problem is getting worse rather than better, something the government is keen to address.<\/p>\n
Transport secretary Chris Grayling said the new Road Safety Action Plan is a 'key milestone' in setting out how Britain intends to reduce the number of people killed on the roads.<\/p>\n
IAM RoadSmart is among the organisations welcoming the tougher rules, having regularly lobbied for such a law to encourage car occupants to belt up.<\/p>\n
"This is very welcome news. The best way of tackling this ever-present issue is to make people believe there is a high chance of being caught. People avoid using seatbelts for a wide range of individual reasons and these views need to be challenged face-to-face," said the organisation's Neil Greig.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Drivers could face tougher penalties for not wearing seatbelts It's pretty routine for many of us: you get behind the wheel of your pride and joy, you click the seatbelt into position, and you set off. Unfortunately, though, some people don't seem to have that habit – and now the government wants to crack down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring-issues"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n