Dangers Of Negligent Driving

No longer is driving without due care and attention an acceptable defense. Momentary lapses of attention are not allowed as an excuse now, and improper driving is an offense that can land you in jail!

Organisations such as MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) have been lobbying for this change in the law for a long time and now different parts of the country have varying levels of punishments for the offences depending on the severity of the results of the careless driving.

But what is so surprising is that people dont take driving without due care and attention so seriously. They sympathize with the offender and offer advice as to how they can get away from it all! On a legal forum, we came across a question put by a member who apparently was charged for spinning tires on a gravel road by virtue of going very fast. There was a petrol pump next to where he was fined and the officer mentioned in his report that the offender was driving without due care and attention, and that since the petrol pump was open and there were people in the area, he could have injured someone. Now, the question in the forum was whether proving if the petrol pump was closed will be beneficial to his case, and to our surprise, dozens of people gave advice as to how he could prove that something in the cops report was wrong! What citizenship!!

Every year there are thousands of deaths or serious injuries on the roads as a result of negligent driving and we dont really take notice. Tens of thousands of people lose their licences every year because of careless driving, at least temporarily and many of them just turn up back behind the wheel without a valid licence! Even though the people in the surrounding neighbourhood may well know about it, most people will not pull them up on it, and this is what causes most of the motoring offences on our roads.

Although as an offence, driving without due care and attention is not deemed as important as drunk driving or driving while talking on the phone, it is still one of the leading causes of road accidents and needs to be addressed with greater seriousness.