CTC – the UK’s national cyclists’ organisation – has welcomed the Government’s proposal to hand out fixed penalty notices for careless driving.

From 2012, police officers will be able to hand out on-the-spot fines of between £80 and £120 to dangerous drivers.

The proposal is one of a number of changes set out in the Department for Transport’s Strategic Framework for Road Safety, which sets out the Government’s approach to reducing killed and seriously injured casualties on Britain’s roads.

“A careless driving fixed penalty notice is welcome, but should only be used where no injury has occurred and the driving is demonstrably careless, not dangerous,” said CTC’s campaigns and policy director Roger Geffen.

“We have concerns that too often driving which is objectively dangerous is treated by police and prosecutors as merely ‘careless’.”

 “The Government needs to make a full assessment of how the system of road traffic law is operating. Too often bad driving – even where a death occurs – is going unpunished.”

The framework also includes increased fines and a move away from relying on speed camera technology – a coalition U-turn on the previous Government’s road safety policy.

“We want to make a clear distinction between those drivers who are a real danger to road safety – reckless, dangerous drivers – and those who are merely occasionally careless or who make an honest mistake,” said transport secretary Philip Hammond.

“That means much more emphasis on enforcement against those who represent the biggest risk and a big increase in the use of education for those who make minor transgressions.

“The big problem under the last government was using technology. Speed cameras were installed and speed became the only focus of the road safety agenda. It ceased to be a road safety agenda and became a speed agenda.

“That meant somebody driving at 55mph in a 50mph limit might get prosecuted but the idiot who is weaving in and out of traffic and tailgating gets off scot-free.”