Motorway lane closures to be enforced by cameras from June

[MikeTheThinker]

From Fleet News this morning:

 

"Drivers who ignore lane closures on motorways marked with a red ‘X’ will be handed a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) of £100 fine and three penalty points from June 10.

At present, only a police officer catching drivers in the act can issue the FPN but the new Road Traffic Offenders (Prescribed Devices) Order 2019 was passed on May 13.

The enforcement will mirror motorway speeding offences in which the police force where the incident took place will issue the penalty.

 

Edmund King, AA president says; “Although it has taken far too long, this is a welcome measure to improve safety on motorways.

“Our research shows that one in 20 drivers continue to drive in red X lanes even when they’ve seen it, and so far Highways England have written warning letters to over 180,000 drivers about their actions.

 

“Red X’s are put up to warn of an obstruction, so drivers must get out of the lane when they see them. We have had several incidents recently where AA members’ cars have been hit in a live lane on ‘smart’ motorways.”

Since the beginning of 2017, Highways England has issued over 180,000 warning letters to drivers who have ignored the signs in an attempt to stamp out the behaviour."

 

[Ttaskmaster]

Can't say I've ever seen someone ignore the red Xs, but good on the prosecution, nonetheless.

I do often see people blasting past roadworks at insane speeds, sometimes when I'm the one behind the cones, so anything that keeps the crews safer gets a thumbs up from me.

[skomaz]

so what's the 'margin of error' on this - you see the first sign that says move over ahead and no-one will let you in - so you continue onwards to avoid stopping in a live lane, trying to find a gap but end up passing under a 'Red X' - is this an immediate fine + points?

[Ootohere]

An Aberdeen Evening paper published the article, but there are no Smart Motorways nearby you would need to be heading south for an hour and a half to see overhead gantry type things with a 'Red X'.

In Glasgow the 'Red X' will stay up on show for a long time after there might have been an incident or maybe before they predict one because when i move from the lane that is marked as closed there never seems to be anything happening in that lane, other than people driving in it.

 

The Article does not mention Scotland though, so we will have to wait and see how the UK Governments announcement affects Scotland.

[Evil Miyagi]

I think this is a good thing!