Danger drivers should pay a fair penalty too

WITH intervention from the PFA, Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez, after initially being fined four weeks’ wages for misconduct in the Champions League match against Bayern Munich has had it reduced to two weeks.

Said to amount to £400,000, it’s pretty much “peanuts” to someone on over £15m per annum (salary plus endorsements). Put to good use for the less-well off however, it might pay a winter’s heating bills for some 1,500 hard-up pensioners, or Vehicle Excise Duty for 1,500 desperate motorists.

Imagine then what the Government could do to help the poor if fines for misconduct on the public highways were calculated in the same way: one week’s wage for not wearing a seat belt; two weeks’ wages for jumping red-lights (cyclists included); three weeks for speeding, and four weeks (plus driving ban) for using a mobile phone or being under the influence of alcohol/drugs. For a combination of the lot, one year’s wages!

Given tobacco and alcohol have been taxed to the hilt to (supposedly) help reduce deaths, and now there’s the hint of a “fat tax” to reduce obesity, it’s surely a logical step – a “tax” on dangerous driving to reduce death and serious injury. Safer roads; fewer casualties; more cycling; healthier nation; pressure off the NHS.

A simple and fair solution that your average high school student could come up with, is it not?

Also, if the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport is cheating and warrants a hefty fine and a ban, then why not the same for excessive speed in a performance car, which leaves other (responsible and poor) road users for dead?