Myths About Driving Laws
June 14, 2009 by Christos Chalfont
Filed under Auto Insurance
There are several myths floating around, particularly on the Internet, about ways that you can avoid being charged if accused of committing a traffic offence. However the fact is that the vast majority of them are simply not true.
One of the most common theories people have is that if a police officer makes a mistake on a traffic offence ticket then that ticket is invalid and the charge is void, but as with most theories of this nature, there is very little truth to it.
This is because the ticket that he gives to you is not official evidence, it is just a brief overview of the offence and if you question the validity of the ticket due to an error, then all that will happen is that a court summons will be sent to you and the officer will have to draw up an official statement which he is not likely to make any errors on.
However, if you dont believe that you have committed the supposed offence and the officer has made a mistake on the ticket, you may be able to use it as evidence that the officer paid insufficient attention to the incident and has a sloppy approach.
If however the only defence you have is that the officer made a mistake on the ticket, then this doesnt really warrant any kind of defence and you will probably be charged.
Another theory that has come up is that when the police ask you who was driving the vehicle at the time of the offence, you dont have to tell them because that would violate human rights. People think that if you are the registered keeper then you dont have to answer the question who was driving it as your human rights allow you to withhold this information.
In fact, this is simply not true. Human have been altered so that you do have to divulge who was driving at the time of offence or you face six points on your licence and a substantial fine. This is because of the importance of road safety.
Another very common mistake that drivers make is that when they buy a new car, they are covered from the insurance on their old vehicle to drive any car owned by someone else with their permission, and as they havent made themselves the registered keeper of the vehicle yet, therefore it still officially belongs to someone else, therefore they are insured.
This is also a false belief. If you have paid money for the car then as far as the law and insurance goes, that car is yours and if you havent switched the insurance over, then you are driving without insurance, which is of course illegal.
