Pensioners aren’t the big problem on UK roads – | Tech News

State pensioners should be feeling attacked. Over 70s are in the Government’s firing line, with ministers sharpening their knives for his or her newest blow as the actual concern carries on at a canter. New obligatory eyesight testing guidelines are prone to come into impact in months, with a Department for Transport (DfT) session coming to an finish this May.

By the finish of this yr, over-70s are nearly actually going to be required to hop down to Specsavers to check their imaginative and prescient simply to be legally allowed behind the wheel of their own vehicles. The drive to spice up street security is a noble one, however pensioners will really feel rightly ganged up on when a a lot larger concern is staring everybody in the face.

In the previous 5 years, the quantity of vehicles taken off the roads has risen by nearly 20%, from 132,435 vehicles half a decade in the past to 158,594 in the present day. That’s an eye-watering determine that’s completely unacceptable and better than many would have predicted.

Drivers with out insurance coverage are 5 occasions more prone to flash velocity cameras and ten occasions more prone to be a drink driver. Many uninsured vehicles should not even in a roadworthy situation, with bald tyres, tinted home windows and damaged seat belts common.

Birmingham appears to be the epicentre, accounting for 5 of the 15 worst areas, with B25, B18, B66, B21 and B35 sitting at the high of the record. Shockingly, the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) has even recommended that more numerous neighbourhoods could possibly be a half of the problem, as some residents don’t perceive the guidelines of the street. You couldn’t write this!

Hayley Sutcliffe, from the MIB, mentioned: “It’s a diverse area so people coming into the country might not know the laws and the legislation of the Road Traffic Act. We need to raise awareness around when people need to have the correct level of cover of insurance.”

So who’s more of a hazard to Britain’s motorists, the 80-year-old grandma with a clean driving licence on their approach to the store at 30mph, or a hair-raising nutter travelling at 90mph in a car higher seen in a scrapheap?

Uninsured automobiles pop up on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, so it is baffling how nearly 160k street customers have been allowed to proceed driving with out cowl in place.

This ought to be the place Labour is popping its consideration. When the numbers are laid naked, pensioners have each proper to really feel victimised.