BRITAIN’S worst drivers have been revealed – and one area of the country has far more dangerous motorists on the roads than anywhere else, stats show. Those in West Yorkshire are significantly more likely to have been slapped with points than people living in any other UK location. DVLA data on the number of penalties […]
BRITAIN’S worst drivers have been revealed – and one area of the country has far more dangerous motorists on the roads than anywhere else, stats show.
Those in West Yorkshire are significantly more likely to have been slapped with points than people living in any other UK location.
DVLA data on the number of penalties accumulated in different postcodes in the space of just a year appears to show Yorkshire residents are less safe behind the wheel.
A whopping 4.50 per cent of all drivers with full licences in Halifax have points – making them the speediest in the country.
Some 100,243 people in the area have passed their driving test – and 4,519 of them were slapped with points over a 12-month period.
In second place is Bradford, a few miles down the road, where 13,477 of 330,813 drivers – 4.07 per cent – have points on their licence.
Wakefield, Huddersfield and Leeds make up the rest of the top five, with 3.95, 3.93 and 3.57 per cent of all drivers being issued with points.
Amazingly, the figures, which cover 2020, show motorists in Halifax are getting better at driving.
In 2019, an astonishing 9.62 per cent had at least one point.
Rounding out the top 10 is Kilmarnock in Scotland, with 3.55 per cent, Liverpool in Merseyside, with 3.48 per cent, Sunderland in Durham, with 3.09 per cent, Northampton in Northamptonshire, with 3.04 per cent, and Doncaster in South Yorks, with 3.02 per cent.
In the south, Slough holds the crown for points, with 2.98 per cent of all drivers on full licences holding the penalty.
By far the safest place to drive in the country – or perhaps the location with fewest cameras – is Lerwick in the Shetland Islands.
There are 15,439 drivers in the ZE postcode, and 154 of them – 0.99 per cent – accumulated points over the space of the a year.
Perhaps surprisingly, comparatively few London drivers have points, with those north of the capital most likely to have been penalised.
The same is true of busy Edinburgh, where just 1.45 per cent of drivers have points.
That’s likely because the cities are the most heavily-congested in the UK.
Brave motorists who head out in the Scottish capital can expect just 90 days with lower congestion every year.
According to TomTom, it’s the 43rd worst place for traffic in the world.
The situation is little better in London, where the average journey takes 37 per cent more time that it should do as a result of jams.
This means that for a journey of 30 minutes, drivers can expect to spend an additional 11 minutes caught in traffic, stretching the trip to 41 minutes.
Just 67 days of the year have ‘low traffic’.
However, not all penalty points are issued for speeding. They can be handed to any motorists who breaks the law, with difference offences carrying different penalties.
Those with more than 12 points can be disqualified for up to three years, although anyone who passed their test fewer than two years ago could be banned after just six.
Points stay on a driving licence for either four or 11 years, depending on the offence.
The most common reasons for getting points are for speeding, driving without due care and attention, using a mobile phone, driving while disqualified, and drink or drug-driving offences.
However, those who leave the scene of an accident can be slapped with five to 10 points, while three points are given for driving with defective brakes, tyres or steering.
Driving an uninsured vehicle can land you with eight points, and parking in a dangerous spot can result in three.
There’s no longer a paper element to licences, meaning anyone who needs to find out how many points they have should log in to the UK Government website with licence details and their National Insurance number.
And for those trying to find a way out of points, be warned – once issued, there’s no way to remove them from a licence apart from waiting for them to expire automatically.
