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Motorists
News
Beware the SORN
National Statsistics - 29 September 2005
Squirrels have turned out to be a lot more dangerous than they look
Motoring offences
How Motoring Offences are dealt with by the police
Golf versus BMW
Biggest annoyances to other drivers
Beware the SORN
Brian Crook
SORN or Statutory Off Road Notification: this is a scheme introduced to combat the menace of car ringing/cloning and registration fraud, etc.
Basically the scheme requires you as the registered keeper of a vehicle to either have valid a vehicle excise licence or make a SORN statement to indicate the vehicle is off the road.
Normally you would chose to do either of the above when you get the road fund licence reminder. However, you must bear in mind that the SORN is only for a period of 12 months, like vehicle excise licence and you must renew it every 12 months. Once again this is usually easily managed via the reminder from the DVLA.
But the DVLA is not required to issue a reminder to you for either road fund licence or renewal of SORN. In most cases they do, but from my painful experience this is not always the case.
To illustrate: I bought a Zündapp Bella in March of 2002 and, as required, sent in the details of new owner on the registration document and in due course received back the update registration document. I was aware that the machine was taxed and MoT'd when I bought it, but the tax disc was not on the machine as it had been transported from Southampton and came in the documentation pack. During the latter part of 2002 I decided to restore the machine and dismantled it in readiness and it remains in that state today. However when I returned from holiday in July of this year I had received a very formal correspondence from the DVLA SORN Enforcement Agency in Glasgow stating I was in default of the SORN regulations and liable initially of a fine of £25 if I accepted guilt and paid within 30 days, I think. Failure to pay within that time would increase in the fine to £45, I think, and after that failure could lead to a maximum fine of £1,000. I was quite outraged by this and rang the DVLA agency who politely, but firmly explained that although the DVLA do issues reminders it is the responsibility of the registered keeper to either tax or SORN. I therefore had to take my medicine, pay the fine, complete the very formal statement that it was and had been off the road, and fill in the SORN document.
I now keep very careful records of all my vehicles which now number in excess of 20 and a timetable of tax and SORN renewals.
The only slight bright spot in this system appears to be in the case where the registration book says the Vehicle Taxation Class is "Not Taxed", as is the case where registration numbers have either been recovered or an age related number issued, and luckily many of my vehicles fall into this category.
You have been warned.
First published, December 2003
National Statsistics - 29 September 2005
This National Statistics publication contains detailed information on the number of people killed and injured on the roads in Great Britain in 2004, based on information about accidents reported to the police.
Key points are:
3,221 people were killed on Britain's roads in 2004, 8 percent less than in 2003. The number of people seriously injured fell to 31,130, also 8 percent lower than in 2003. Total casualties in 2004 were 280,840, 3 percent fewer than in 2003;
5 fewer children were killed on the roads in 2004 than in 2003, a fall of 3 percent. The total number of children killed or seriously injured fell by 5 percent
Provisional estimates indicate that the number of deaths in accidents involving drink driving was 2 percent higher than in 2003. Final estimates will be available next year. Total casualties in drink drive accidents fell by an estimated 10 percent
Pedestrian casualties fell by 4 percent between 2003 and 2004 and the number of killed or seriously injured pedestrians was down 6 percent. 12 percent of all road accident casualties and 21 percent of those who died in road accidents were pedestrians
In 2004, the number of casualties among users of two wheeled motor vehicles fell by 10 percent compared with 2003 and the number of deaths fell by 16 percent to 585. Serious injuries fell by 13 percent. The overall casualty rate per hundred million vehicle kilometres fell by 2 percent;
edal cyclist casualties fell 2 percent. The number of cyclists killed or seriously injured fell by 4 percent overall, but the number of fatalities increased by 18 percent. Pedal cyclist casualty rates per hundred million vehicle kilometres increased by 14 percent.
Squirrels have turned out to be a lot more dangerous than they look
The next time you go for a drive, as well as the usual dangers on the road, make sure you watch out for frozen squirrels, kebabs and stray potatoes.
As silly as it sounds, you can never be too careful with food or animals, according to UK insurer Norwich Union.
The company has put together a list of its strangest car insurance claims it received over the past twelve months.
They may sound outlandish but Norwich Union said that all the claims have all been verified and paid out.
Some of its strangest claims have included:
"A frozen squirrel fell out of a tree and crashed through the windscreen on to the passenger seat."
"The car was parked when a reindeer fell on the bonnet of my car."
"As I was driving round a bend, when one of the doors opened and a frozen kebab flew out, hitting and damaging a passing car."
"A herd of cows licked my car and caused damage to the paintwork."
"A zebra collided with my car when I was at a safari park."
"While I was waiting at traffic lights, a wasp went down my trouser leg which made me hit the accelerator and prang the car in front."
"I couldn't brake because a potato was lodged behind the brake."
"My parked car was hit by a bull which had escaped from an agricultural show."
"A cow jumped on my quad bike."
"As I came over a hill, I hit a cow in the middle of the road, which then hit the bonnet and shattered the windscreen with its rear end."
"We see a lot of strange claims but we were surprised at how many involved animals and food of all things," said Sally Leeman, a spokeswoman for Norwich Union.
"This shows how important it is to be aware of what's going on around you at all times," she said.
Motoring offences
Watching Top Gear Jeremy quizzing a transport minister I think a look at 2003 Motoring Offence and Breath Test Statistics would have helped him ask the minister a few pertinent questions to ascertain if motorists were being targeted a table of motoring offences for the last eleven years are included in the report four years of them are reproduced below ,these show what action was taken on motoring offences the main thing that stands out is that although vehicle numbers have risen by 20% over the thirteen year period offences have increased by 98% and in the last four years vehicles up by 2,000,000 and offences by 3,500,000 what does this tell us about motoring today
The report was compiled for the Home Office by Ransford Fiti, Dave Perry & Liza Murray
MAIN POINTS
Motoring offences
The number of motoring offences dealt with by official police action or
penalty charge notice in 2003 was 13.2 million, up 15 per cent on 2002 and
the highest number recorded
The number of offences dealt with by motoring fixed penalty notice
issued by the police (including traffic wardens) in 2003 was 3.6 million, up 27
per cent on 2002. In addition 7.1 million penalty charge notices were issued
by local authority parking attendants in 2003, up 11 per cent
There were 2.3 million court proceedings for motoring offences during
2003, up nine per cent on 2002
Cameras provided evidence for 1.9 million offences dealt with in
2003. Overall these cameras provided evidence for 93 per cent of speeding
offences dealt with
Breath tests
534,000 screening breath tests were carried out during 2003, six per
cent fewer than in 2002
The number of positive or refused tests in 2003 rose by three per cent
from 103,000 in 2002 to 106,000 in 2003
NUMBER OF OFFENCES DEALT WITH
Table A Offences relating to motor vehicles: summary of action taken
England and Wales Millions
Type of action
| Year | Written Warnings | VDRS Notice | Fixed Penalty Notice | Penalty Charge Notice | Court Proceedings | Total | Currently Licensed Vehicles | | 2000 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 3.0 | 4.7 | 2.1 | 9.9 | 26.2 | | 2001 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 2.9 | 5.3 | 2.0 | 10.4 | 27.0 | | 2002 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 2.9 | 6.4 | 2.1 | 11.5 | 27.7 | | 2003 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 3.6 | 7.1 | 2.3 | 13.2 | 28.2 |
How Motoring Offences are dealt with by the police
How motoring offences have been dealt with by different police forces over the four years 2000 to 2003 inclusive can be seen by the statistics on motoring offences issued by the Home Office, the national average has been 37% to 39% of offencences resulting with summonses being issued,
There were some large variations to get these averages which are put down to a number of factors,those being urbanization Local Authority involvement in issuing penalty charges and Police Policy these differences can be quite large as shown
2000 Cumbria issued summonses for 21% of motoring offences whilst West Midlands 56%
2001 Essex 19% and Greater Manchester 61%
2002 Northamptonshire 13% West Midlands 68%
2003 Warwickshire 20% and Greater Manchester 67%
It would appear that West Midlands and Greater Manchester are not the most motorist friendly areas with the latest set of figures for 2004 due it will be interesting to see which authority is most friendly and which is not
Golf versus BMW
It's one of life's sad truths that the Germans are better than the British at a number of things. Better at doing cars, certainly, and very probably better at the synchronised cry-a-thon called football too. So, given that two of the mightiest German car brands are BMW and VW, which of them makes the best hot hatch?
Well, the BMW 1 series has the luxury of rear wheel drive. Which, in fairness to BMW, does make it almost perfectly balanced. But the problems with the 1 series are sadly many and varied. The most ridiculous problem with it is the price. This car costs a small fortune. £31,000 in fact, which really isn't competitive. That said, the BMW felt slightly better than the Golf on the track (the results tell a different story). But given the R32 is a four wheel drive car, and that it costs £4000 less than the BMW, it's not going to be a difficult choice for most people.
Biggest annoyances to other drivers
Are you going left, right or straight
down the middle?
Let's be totally honest... if you drive a car, we've all done it at some time or another.
Intentionally, accidentally or just because at that moment in time you're just being careless!
But for the motorist in the car behind you it is the Number One pet hate... when you don't use your indicators to turn left or right!
So says a new independent survey - carried out for breakdown service Autonational Rescue - and aimed at finding out what upsets British motorists the most out on the open road.
In descending order, the top ten pet hates of UK drivers are:
At Number One - Left or Right? 66% of motorists are most annoyed by people who don't use their indicators to signal their intentions.
Number Two - Being Tailgated Four years ago, this got the top spot. And it's still highly unpopular with 64% of motorists.
At Three - Mobile Phones More and more people get upset by drivers who take and make hand-held phone calls on the move. 62% get upset by this potentially dangerous activity. Four years ago it was 57%.
At Four - Road Hogs 40% can't stand drivers who "hog" the middle lane of the motorway. Can you blame them?
At Five - The Great British Banger 39% believe drivers of unroadworthy cars should not be allowed to get away with it!
At Six - Imaginary Fog 37% of British motorists go nuts about others who use their fog lights when the nearest fog's in Jersey!
At Seven - Music Matters But 34% actively dislike hearing your choice of music when it's played loudly in the car with the windows open.
At Eight - Not so Fast Drivers 23% dislike motorists who always drive at exactly 70-mph in the motorway fast lane and won't let you overtake.
At Equal Nine - Big Cars and Big Polluters 21% of motorists don't like big cars and 4X4's who use their size to push into heavy traffic or motorists whose vehicles cause more pollution than most.
Ronan Hart, Autonational Rescue's marketing manager, said: "Tailgating and mobile phone use while on the move both make regular and unwelcome appearances in our top ten.
"The best course of action to take when being tailgated is to indicate and safely pull over, providing road conditions are suitable, to let the annoying driver past. But, in the event of stopping, you should keep your doors locked for safety reasons."
Other pet hates which didn't make the top ten this year include:
Parking Mad Twenty per cent go "parking mad" when they find that car parking spaces are too small for their vehicle.
Tolls on Top A brand new category this year, 19% of drivers dislike paying tolls on top of road taxes to use bridges and roads.
Move Over 16% of drivers don't want to see short bus lanes that force you over for short distances.
Less than a Motor-way and Parking Permits 14% of drivers take exception to being given no warning of motorway queues ahead and the same number object to paying a resident's parking fee in inner city areas to park outside their own house!
The survey was conducted by Research Surveys of Great Britain.
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