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. 😀