Penalties for marginally breaching speed limits in the UK are to be lowered in some cases, Alistair Darling, the British transport secretary, proposed Wednesday, bowing to the chorus of public complaints that the current system is arbitrary, inflexible and shaped to raise taxes rather than create safer roads.
This year three million speeding offences will be recorded and motorists penalized with lost points and fines.
Just fewer than 1,000 pedestrians were killed by excessive speed last year, with the UK government claiming on the basis of research published this summer that 40 percent of lives have been saved by speed cameras.
But the opposition Conservative Party has latched on to cumulative punitive fines for speeding, incursions into bus lanes, and failing to pay congestion fees as examples of motorists being punished by an overweening state.
Darling, angering the road safety lobby, said that motorists caught speeding just above the relevant limit may in future be given lower penalties or ordered to undergo the alternative of taking remedial driving courses.
Darling said the drivers might get only two penalty points, as opposed to three, for marginally breaching the speed limit. Penalties could now range between ?40 (US$71.8) and two penalty points for less serious offences and up to ?100 (US$179.6) and six points for more serious offences, especially speeding in 20mph limits set up to protect schools and local neighborhoods.
The changes, designed to lift the fear of a total ban from the frequent motorist, will replace the "one-size fits all" approach, Darling said. They will not require primary legislation and follows previous indications of a more flexible policy on penalties for speeding.
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