POLICE are to offer speeding drivers a safety course as an alternative to penalty points after education was found to be more effective than punishment.

A study of drivers detected by speed cameras in Humberside found that a quarter of those fined £60 and given three points were caught speeding again in a year. Fewer than one in 12 of those offered a speed-awareness course reoffended.

The evidence that drivers are more likely to slow down if taught the consequences of speeding has not been lost on the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), which is preparing to approve national guidelines for speed-awareness courses. Any motorist caught driving at up to 37mph in a 30mph zone will be offered the option of going on a course costing no more than £60.

The maximum speeds at which drivers will qualify for a course will be based on Acpo’s trigger speed for enforcement — 10 per cent over the limit plus 2mph — plus another 2mph. Drivers caught doing 48mph in a 40mph zone, 59mph in a 50mph zone, 70mph in a 60mph zone and 81mph in a 70mph zone will qualify.

The courses are expected to prevent thousands of drivers already on nine points losing their licences. Many more will be spared increases in their insurance premiums.

Some forces, including Humberside, Lancashire, Thames Valley and Avon and Somerset, already offer speed-awareness courses, but there is no consistency in the cost, content or the maximum speeds at which drivers are offered them.

Drivers also have to travel to the county where they were caught to attend the course, even if they live far away. Acpo’s guidelines will allow drivers to take a course in their own area. They will not be allowed to take more than one course every three years. Their details will be entered on a database to prevent them sitting more than one course in different areas.

Drivers are taught to spot risks during a computer-simulated journey. The exercise is based on the Driving Standards Agency’s hazard perception test, now part of the driving test.

Forces establishing courses for the first time will be allowed to charge no more than £60, the cost of a fixed penalty.

Under the guidelines, the courses will run for half a day and be classroom-based. Forces such as Lancashire and Thames Valley, which provide full-day courses with an afternoon of on-the-road instruction, will be able to continue that format.

Ian Bell, of Acpo, who helped to set up the Lancashire course, said that the guidelines were likely to be introduced after an Acpo meeting scheduled for July. He said that most forces would be offering courses within a year. “People are apprehensive when they arrive for the course because they think they are going to get a lecture, but they soon realise the aim is not to admonish them but to help them be safer drivers,” he said.

The AA Motoring Trust welcomed the decision but criticised the plan to limit them to drivers caught not much over the limit. Paul Watters, of the trust, said: “The habitual speeders who exceed the limit by a wide margin may benefit the most from these courses, but they would not qualify in terms of the rules. The courses will be offered to many people who have had a momentary lapse of concentration and may never commit another offence.”

Would you opt for the course or the penalty points?
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