As some of you may know, one of my bugbears on the roads, is people who drive with their front fog lights on when there isn’t any fog. Whenever I mention it, it usually transpires that quite a lot of people don’t seem to realise that it’s illegal, basically because you regularly pass loads of people who use them incorrectly. However it is an offence, due to the danger of other road users being dazzled by the high intensity lights – as indeed I have been on occasions. As such it is subject to a £30 fixed penalty notice if you get caught – although as the number of people who do it shows, it’s not very high up on the list of Police priorities – hence why when Police do issue a notice, it makes the regional news.
There have been two examples recently. An unfortunate cabbie in Portsmouth made the national press with his story. He was pulled over (apparently not for the first time according to local reports), and served with a £30 fixed penalty notice. Rather than pay it, he refused, and was jailed for five days for non-payment of fines. This of course has led to all the ‘Cabbie Jailed for Leaving Fog Lights On‘ type headlines, indeed he even turned up on our local TV news complaining that it was unfair that he got fined but others were let off with a warning. He’s not alone – take a look at this video item from January – a motorist in the Midlands with forty years of trouble free motoring got ticketed for the same offence – he’s just at the point of considering not paying…
Perhaps the most amusing part of both TV items is that for the benefit of the cameras, both drivers drove up and down the road repeating the offence for the BBC. I’m sure there is something in the BBC charter about inciting people to commit a crime. 
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I, like your columnist, hate the use of front and rear fog lamps when there is no fog around. I have spoken to many people using them in this way and after the prliminary “are you a cop” and “no”, 9 time out of 10, I have had a stream of verbal abuse, swearing and physical attacks. I have even had my car keys taken from my car and thrown into a hedge.
So, on the basis of the response I get, I believe these morons deserve everthing they get in the way of fines etc. I can bet that the very same people I have spoke to, if challenged by the police or interviewed by the media, would say that they didn’t realise they were on or fogot to turn them off and are being unjustifiably targeted.
My experience, in the Birmingham area, is that approxximately 5% of all vehicles use fog lamps when there is no fog. This equates to approx 10% of all vehicles fitted with the lamps. I have been in touch with the local Police liaison officer, who although sympathetic, stated that the police have far better things to do than chase these offenders. He furnished me with some figures relating to fixed penalty issues (this was in 2004). The number of fixed penalty notices issued in a 40 week period was 42 – in the whole of the West Midland area. I can deduce from this that there is one police officer who is taking this seriously, and probably being panned for it.
I have written to local papers to highlight this problem to no effect. The Police aren’t interested, the general public aren’t interested, there is total apathy when it comes to this problem, and others like it.
My view is that this results in people, particularly young people, believing if they can get away with this very visible offence they can get away with anything. In the majority of cases they are probably quite right. But it’s nice to see the system working, even if it is in a microscopic way.