• Picture the scene: you are in your office when
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you hear a loud knock at the door, In comes one of the boys in blue. "Are you the owner of a blue 16-tormer, registered LML20K?" asks the policeman. "Why, yes officer, that's mine all right," you answer, trying to remember when the tax is due for renewal. The policeman reads you your rights and then tells you he is nicking you for driving at speed. Self-righteously you swear that it's been three years since you last drove it. "Ah well, sir, because of the new law, even though you might not have been anywhere near that vehicle for years, you own it so you've got to either pay up the fine, come down to the station or sack your driver." This isn't mere fantasy but could be the result of a new proposal to extend owner-liability from parking to motorway offences. It is one of a range of responses to the recent spate of serious motorway crashes being investigated by junior Transport Minister Peter Bottomley (left).
Because police face immense danger when they have to apprehend "misbehaving motorists" on motorways, Bottomley, speaking on the BBC radio programme The World at One last week, said: "The police are experimenting with photographic and video evidence. The problem is that you have to get hold of a motorist immediately after he has offended.
The Government is going to have to consider whether owner-liability can be used for moving traffic."
Car and truck owners in some European countries are already liable if a fine goes unpaid in such cases.