Ausländer bekommen keine Strafmandate - BCM Motoring News Service

Ausländer bekommen keine Strafmandate - BCM Motoring News Service

No speeding fines for foreign drivers

Speeding foreign drivers have little need for a speed camera detector as thousands are managing to avoid speed fines.In Leicestershire alone, nearly 1,500 foreign drivers have escaped an automatic notice of intended prosecution, despite being snapped by a gatso speed camera. Under current laws, drivers only have to register foreign number plates if the vehicle will be driven in the UK for more than six months. With no central registry of more fleeting visitors, many foreign drivers simply need to leave the country to evade prosecution for a traffic fine. Leicestershire safety camera partnership snapped 1,487 speeding foreign vehicles in 2006, including one case on the A1 near Oakham where a vehicle with foreign plates was snapped at 121 mph. Speed camera officials admitted that the loophole is likely to provoke resentment among British drivers, who frequently complain of the proliferation of speed cameras and the need for speed camera maps when driving."People will be a little frustrated to see that a foreign driver is perhaps getting away with speeding because we can't trace them and they themselves may have drifted over the speed limit and been caught," said Hema Lad from the Leicestershire safety camera partnership.Leicester MP Peter Soulsby claims that better sharing of vehicle data is necessary.The Labour MP said: "It just needs our computer system at the DVLA to be linked with similar systems in other European countries. "It needs them to talk to each other to exchange information and make sure these drivers that are breaking our laws pay our fines."Transport for London (TfL) has previously admitted that there are similar problems in the capital, with foreign drivers evading the congestion charge.Between January 2005 and June 2006, TfL reports that 88,000 foreign drivers escaped the C-charge, amounting to lost fines worth £8.8 million. TfL claimed that the lack of a Europe-wide agreement on fine enforcement made it very difficult for UK local authorities to tackle foreign drivers. Police chiefs warned late last year that foreign lorry drivers pose a danger to British road users, with the Association of Chief Police Officers claiming that the expansion of the EU had exacerbated the problem.It was found that many foreign lorries were unsafe compared to UK standards. The road safety charity Brake further warns that foreign lorry drivers do not have to undergo additional training.Figures show that foreign drivers are at least as likely to offend as UK drivers.