The law places a number of duties upon those who drive and if these are not observed they can lead to an offence being committed. Whilst penalties for failure to observe traffic signs are usually light, other failures, such as failure to report an accident or failure to provide a specimen of your breath can result in far more serious consequences.

There are two types of offence in relation to failure to provide a specimen – failing to provide a road side specimen of breath, and failing to provide an evidential specimen for analysis. This is usually blood or urine and is normally provided at the police station.

If you are driving a vehicle and you are involved in an accident in which someone is hurt, another vehicle is damaged, an animal is injured, or property on or near the road is damaged then you must stop and, if you are required by another person to provide your name and address and the name and address of the owner of the vehicle (if different) then you must do so.

If an offence is alleged to have been committed but the driver has not been stopped at the time of that offence then the registered keeper of the vehicle will be issued with a Notice of Intended Prosecution (usually within 14 days) and is required to help identify the driver of the vehicle at time the offence took place within 28 days or challenge the notice.

This is a complex area of the law and strict rules apply as to the size, colour and placing of traffic signs. In most cases failure to observe a road sign will, on conviction, result in a fine of up to £1,000. However, if the sign which was not complied with was a Stop or No entry sign then you may also face penalty points on your licence or even be disqualified from driving.