Brake calls for £1,000 fixed penalty fines

With the recent rise in fixed penalty fines to £100, road safety charity Brake is calling for these to be increased to as much as £1,000.

The organisation claims that while the latest rise in fines is a step in the right direction, that it still doesn’t offer a great enough deterrent against careless driving.

Instead it feels that driver caught using a mobile phone behind the wheel or speeding should face a fine of between £500 and £1,000.

It feels that this kind of fine would reflect the potentially deadly consequences of bad driving and encourage drivers to take more responsibility when on the road.

The increase in April was the first time that the fines had gone up since 2000. And Brake says that this has made them much lower than penalties for many other serious offences.

The new fines were also coincided with a number of new powers for traffic police to pull over drivers that use the wrong lane at a roundabout or that do not give way at a T-junction.

Do you think the fines should be more than £100? How much do you think is enough to stop careless driving? Let us know what you think in the comments below.