New Penalties For Driving In A Motorway Lane That Has Been Closed
Thursday, 16. May 2019
Drivers who ignore lane closures on motorways marked with a red ‘X’ will be handed a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) of £100 fine and three penalty points from June 10 2019.
At present, only a police officer catching drivers in the act can issue the FPN but the new Road Traffic Offenders (Prescribed Devices) Order 2019 was passed on May 13.
The enforcement will mirror motorway speeding offences. By this it means that the police force where the incident took place will issue the penalty.
Edmund King, AA president says; “Although it has taken far too long, this is a welcome measure to improve safety on motorways.
“Our research shows that one in 20 drivers continue to drive in red X lanes even when they’ve seen it, and so far Highways England has written warning letters to over 180,000 drivers about their actions.
“Red X’s are put up to warn of an obstruction, so drivers must get out of the lane when they see them. We have had several incidents recently where AA members’ cars have been hit in a live lane on ‘smart’ motorways.”
Since the beginning of 2017, Highways England has issued over 180,000 warning letters to drivers who have ignored the signs in an attempt to stamp out the behaviour. This clearly hasn’t worked so more extreme measures were called for. By Graham Hill
