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.

The most common example of a failure on your part as a driver which could lead to you having committed an offence is a failure to observe road signs. The fact that you did not commit the offence deliberately, or that you did not, for example, notice the sign, will not be a defence unless the sign in question was obscured and therefore not visible to you. Similar offences are failure to observe traffic signals or instructions from a police officer directing traffic.

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.

If you have been charged with any of these offences then please contact keepmedriving either by completing the appropriate online information form which you will find in the Getting Help section, by requesting a free call-back using the free, no-obligation call-back form to the right or by phoning us during office hours on 084 4804 4804

There are two types of offence in relation to failure to provide a specimen. These are:

• failing to provide a road side specimen of breath, and
• failing to provide an evidential specimen for analysis. This again will usually be a breath sample and is normally provided at the police station. If a blood sample is required there will need to be a doctor present.

Sections 4 & 5 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 provides that if without reasonable excuse you fail to provide a specimen of breath when required to do so you will be guilty of an offence and a constable may arrest you without warrant if he or she has reasonable cause to suspect that you have alcohol in your body. In most cases you will be tested (hence the description “roadside breath test”) although it is not uncommon for the test to be carried out at or near the place where you were stopped.

You should note, however, that unless you have been involved in an accident, then section 1 of the Road Traffic Act requires that the constable have “reasonable cause to suspect” that:

• you are “driving or attempting to drive or in charge of a motor vehicle on a road or other public place” and that you have alcohol in your body, or you have committed a traffic offence whilst the vehicle was in motion, or
• you have been driving or attempting to drive or been in charge of a motor vehicle on a road or other public place with alcohol in your body and you still have alcohol in his body, or
• you have been driving or attempting to drive or been in charge of a motor vehicle on a road or other public place and have committed a traffic offence whilst the vehicle was in motion,

Irrespective of any other penalty which you may or may not incur, the penalty for refusing a road side test is 4 penalty points or a discretionary disqualification and a fine of up to £1000. If you fail to provide a sample at the police station, this also carries a fine and disqualification for a period of 24 months and the possibility of either a community order or imoprisonment for a period of up to 6 months. This minimum period for disqualification will rise to 3 years if you have been convicted of an alcohol related offence within the last 10 years.

However, you may be able to avoid a conviction if you are able to show that you had a “reasonable excuse” for failing to provide a specimen or breath test. This could be for medical reasons such as asthma or breathing difficulties which prevent you from blowing into the machine or it may be a phobia abouit needles which prevent you from supplying a sample of your blood for testing. The fact that you had not been drinking will not be regarded as a reasonable excuse.

You should also be aware that you can be guilty of the offence even if you were not driving. The only test the prosecution will need to pass in court is that the officer had reasonable grounds for suspecting that the person had driven – although the fact that a person was not driving could amount to a special reason not to disqualify.

If you have been charged with failing to produce a breath test, or if you would like to discuss this with one of our solicitors, then please contact keepmedriving either by completing the appropriate online information form which you will find in the Getting Help section, requesting a free, no obligation call-back using the call-back form to the right or phoning us during office hours on 084 4804 4804

You should also note the provisions in relation to failure to provide a sample of blood or urine.

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 near or on 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.

Reporting an accident

If there is no one else involved and therefore you are not required to provide that information to another person then you must report the accident at a police station or to a police constable as soon as possible and in any case within 24 hours of the event or accident occurring.

Should you fail to do so, then you will be liable to a fine, endorsement with between 5 and 10 penalty points and you may even run the risk of being disqualified or being imprisoned for up to 6 months.

Note in particular that you only need to stop and give particulars if another person in the accident, or if damage has been caused to another vehicle or to property near to the road – for example a wall, lamppost or sign.

Defence to not reporting

You may have a defence to the charge if you can show that you were unaware that the accident had occurred. However, you should particularly bear in mind that if you do not report and the court takes the view that you did not do so because you wanted to avoid a breath test or if serious injury was caused, then you will stand a much greater likelihood of being imprisoned for the offence.

For further advice and assistance in relation to this please contact keepmedriving either by completing the appropriate online information form which you will find in the Getting Help section, by requesting a free call-back using the free, no-obligation call-back form to the right or by phoning us during office hours on 084 4804 4804

Introduction

If the driver of a vehicle is alleged to have committed a road traffic offence but the vehicle has not been stopped at the time of that offence, for example because it is a speeding or traffic light offence which has been caught on camera – then the registered keeper of the vehicle will be issued with a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP).

Time limits

The NIP must be sent within 14 days of the date upon which the offence took place and requires the registered keeper to help identify the driver of the vehicle at time the offence took place. You will have 28 days in which to respond to the notice or to challenge the notice if it should not have been served upon you. If you are the registered keeper of that vehicle and you fail to provide this information within 28 days then you may be prosecuted for failure to furnish information under section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and if convicted could be fined up to £1,000 and have 6 penalty points on your licence.

It is vital that if you have received a NIP that you contact keepmedriving as a matter of urgency and before you return the notice so that we can advise you as to how to respond to the notice and as to the options which are open to you. This is a complicated area of the law and it might not be a straight forward issue as to whether you are the keeper of the vehicle.

Lack of knowledge

You may not be sure who was driving the car at the relevant time – especially if a number of people have access to the car, and the response you give could dictate how the matter proceeds. You may then, for example, have a defence if you can establish that you acted with “reasonable diligence” to ascertain who the driver was, which may involve, for example, asking for copies of any photographs from the speed or traffic light cameras to help you to identify the driver. If the matter proceeds to court you may be called upon to give further evidence of the steps you have taken to ascertain the identity of the driver.

You should also bear in mind that the court also has a discretionary powers to disqualify for this offence, although fortunately this is a power which is seldom used.

Employers

If you are the owner of a company then there are other factors which you have to take account of. For example, there is a duty upon you to keep a record of who was driving a company vehicle at any particular time. If you have not kept such a log then you will need to contact us as a matter of urgency in order that we can help you to minimise the penalties arising from that also. Remember it is up to the police or the Crown Prosecution Service to prove their case and you should not simply accept the position.

If you have been charged with failing to provide information then please contact keepmedriving either by completing the appropriate online information form which you will find in the Getting Help section, by requesting a free call-back using the free, no-obligation call-back form to the right or by phoning us during office hours on 084 4804 4804

If you have been charged for failing to observe a traffic sign or failing to stop at a traffic light then you should contact keepmedrivingas soon as practicable so that we can advise you of the options which are available to you. This is a very complex area of the law and there are strict rules on the size, colour and placing of traffic signs which may, in certain circumstances, enable you to have a defence to any charges brought.

Failing to comply with road traffic signs is dealt with under section 36 of The Road Traffic Act 1988.

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.

In addition to needing to observe road signs, you are also under a duty to observe any directions to stop or to go into a particular line of traffic given to you by a constable engaged in the regulation of traffic or in connection with a road survey. This is covered in section 35 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. In fact, it is worth bearing in mind that by reason of section 37, even a pedestrian can be guilty of an offence if they fail to follow the instructions of a constable in uniform engaged in the regulation of vehicular traffic in a road.

Prosecutions for traffic light offences tend to be as a result of traffic light cameras capturing the offence, but can occur following their being observed by a police officer.

If you have been stopped or received notice that an offence has taken place then you should contact keepmedriving as a matter of urgency since there may be a defence if, for example, it can be shown that the traffic light camera was incorrectly calibrated.

Should you be found guilty of a traffic light offence then the penalty is three points on your licence and the possibility of a disqualification, depending upon the circumstances.

If you have been charged with any of these offences then please contact keepmedriving either by completing the appropriate online information form which you will find in the Getting Help section, by requesting a free call-back using the free, no-obligation call-back form to the right or by phoning us during office hours on 084 4804 4804