UK number plates could be traced for driving offences abroad

UK number plates could be traced for driving offences abroad

Under a new European ruling UK drivers could find that their number plates hold the key to a wave of fines. If a new law is passed it make it easier for European authorities to trace drivers through their number plates to enforce driving offences.

It is estimated that around five million drivers from the UK venture into Europe every year, however they often fall foul of the different driving laws and the way that speed restrictions are signed. For anyone who has driven in Europe they would notice that there is a lack of speed signs, this is because in a country like France, the speed limits are standard throughout the country, i.e. if a car enters a village the speed limit is 31 mph, but this is not indicated.

The head of the AA's road safety dept, Andrew Howard said: "French village signs automatically impose a limit of 50 km/h (31 mph) but motorists don't always know this.

"It is hard enough to make a challenge when the offence is said to have been committed in Somerset and you live in Norfolk and it will be far harder if it happens in Spain."

Many drivers are being caught by speed cameras and their number plates are taken down, but at the moment as in the UK, foreign number plates are a no go area for the authorities as it is just too hard to chase them up.

A European Commission spokesman said: "The record and the fine just go straight in the bin."

The European Commission are planning to change this by allowing foreign police forces to gain access through the DVLA to the details of the registered keepers of the vehicles whose number plates have caught on camera.

Source [Telegraph]

Personallyyours.co.uk who is registered with the DVLA has been in the personalised number plate industry for twenty years. They provide private number plates, rare number plates, attend number plate auctions and buy cherished number plates.

http://www.personallyyours.co.uk/blog/18062008.htm