Latest government statistics support SPARKS researchItem Added 05 November 2007Newly released government statistics support SPARKS recent research on foreign vehicle activity around the United Kingdom
Department for Transport accident statistics for 2006, published in September, reveal:
- 1,072 foreign-registered lorries were involved in accidents on UK roads, 9.46% of all lorries involved in accidents
- 1,366 casualties resulted from accidents involving foreign HGVs, 9.4% of all casualties involving HGVs.
The SPARKS report estimated that eight per cent of heavy goods vehicles on the roads at any one time are foreign-registered, indicating foreign HGVs are a quarter more likely to be involved in an accident and cause injury.
Ireland
Northern Ireland’s Criminal Justice Inspection report ‘Enforcement in the Department of Environment’, published in October, highlighted:
- Inconsistent enforcement of foreign drivers and registered vehicles due to a lack of data and limited applicability of sanctions
- Widening driver knowledge of enforcement inconsistencies contributing to dangerous driver behaviour
- Foreign registered vehicles evading road traffic penalties and charges, outstaying visitor status and more likely to be used for wider criminality
- Evidence of UK vehicles being driven with made up or stolen foreign number plates.
The Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) is piloting a strategy to wheel clamp and impound vehicles not taxed and registered in their country of origin, with the Republic of Ireland, Poland, Lithuania and Sweden.
The Irish Independent reported 1,700 accidents on Irish roads in 2006 involving cars registered in Poland and Lithuania, with 20 people killed and 2,000 injured by uninsured drivers, many of them foreign nationals. Numbers of collisions involving foreign registered cars is also growing, according to the article on 18 October.
Additionally, it claimed of the 400,000 penalty points imposed, 108,000 could not be applied because the drivers did not hold Irish driving licenses.
Grampian
Aberdeen’s Press and Journal also reported a rise in foreign vehicles caught by speeding cameras in Grampian region; 526 in 2006 compared to 450 in 2005. The paper said no action was taken against them because of a lack of information sharing between EU countries.
Greater Manchester
In early October the Manchester Evening News revealed one in every 100 speeders in Greater Manchester is now thought to be a foreign-registered driver.
Cars with foreign plates were responsible for 1,052 speeding offences in 2006, but were able to avoid a penalty because they could not be traced by the DVLA.
Numbers of foreign vehicles speeding increased during 2006, while the total number of speeding offences in Greater Manchester fell by 7,000 to 100,780, according to the article published on 8 October. |
|
Facts & Figures- The South East (excluding London) accounts for 29% of FRV activity
- Channel Tunnel & channel ports carry most of the FRV traffic entering and leaving the UK
- The further a region is from the South East the lower its level of FRV activity
 |
