According to the Endsleigh Insurance motor theft index, Hull is the most dangerous place to park a car in Britain for the second year in a row.
In second place was Nottingham followed by the West Yorkshire town of Bradford, Manchester, and the South Yorkshire town of Doncaster.
However, Humberside Police denied that crime is rising in Hull, instead pointing to evidence that motor theft has actually reduced over the past year.
The Insurance company stated that there has been a national reduction in car theft over the last year although there are still some towns that pose more of a theft, especially cities found in North England and the Midlands.
On the flip side of the index, Swindon was found to be the safest place to leave a motor vehicle followed in second place by Cheltenham. Rounding out the top five safest places to leave a motor vehicle were Southampton, Solihull, and Bangor.
Endsleigh Insurance compiled the figures by looking over the last three years of motor claims from tens of thousands of British motor insurance policy holders.
Stuart Wartalsi, an employee of the company, stated that the risk of theft is the highest after the holidays when cars are targeted that have cameras, DVDS, satnavs, and laptops inside of them.
Wartalsi advised motorists that they should always hide any valuables under the seat, in the trunk, or out of sight somewhere within the vehicle and that a car should be outfit with an alarm even while parked in well lit areas.
New figures from the police show that the M11 Woordford, Essex speed camera is the busiest out of all of Britain’s CCTVs due to the fact that it has caught a little over 38,000 speeders which have resulted in £2.3m in fines.
The busiest speed camera in the London area in 2006 and 2007 was the East London Limehouse Link Tunnel camera which caught about seven thousand and five thousand drivers speeding respectively.
Last year however, the Limehouse camera lost its title as the busiest London camera to the A316 camera on Country Way towards the Kemptom Park Racecourse when it caught almost 8500 speeders.
In the Surrey area the A3 Esher bypass camera is also notable given that it has been responsible for catching almost 13,000 speeders over the past three years.
Additionally, a camera in Nottinghamshire on the southbound Elkesley A1 is also one of the busiest cameras at one point catching around a thousand speeders a month. Over the last three years the camera has a caught a total of 23,000 speeders.
Finally, a Sussex camera also gets kudos as the best CCTV camera in its region as the Preston Road, Brighton CCTV caught about 6500 speeders in 2005 although its offenders dropped off in following years.
Child pedestrians from areas that are more deprived are over four times as likely to be injured or killed in a traffic incident than children that live in wealthier areas, according to a new report presented to MPs.
The report added that the DfT, Department for Transport, should take more note of this fact, and promote proper road safety in the deprived areas where most child pedestrian casualties occur.
The report, published by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said that the department was already aware of the fact that police data that is used to measure casualty areas is understated.
Edward Leigh, the committee chairman, stated that the department has just now realized that the mismatch was enormous, and that although in 2008 there were only 230,000 casualties reported to police, but the estimated figure is closer to 800,000.
Leigh continued to say that it is important that the department figures out a way to adjust the police data so that the picture presented to local council’s is more accurate.
Also noted in the report is the fact that the DfT was not aware that cyclists engaged in behaviour that often presented a hazard to other motorists, and themselves.
In response the committee responded that new schemes should be focused on education to cut down on ‘anti-social behaviour’ that could help reduce how many people break traffic laws on a regular basis.
Among recommendations by the committee is a greater use of CCTV speed cameras, road humps, and more 20mph zones.
UK motorists are talking to their Toyotas and speaking to their Seats according to new research by one of the UK’s largest used car websites which revealed that 75 per cent of motorists admit chatting to their cars.
The findings from a motors.co.uk poll of 1,200 drivers, found that 44 per cent (529) ‘sometimes’ natter to their Nissans with a further 31 per cent (373) of motor mouths claiming to ‘always’ converse with their car.
And following in the footsteps of Basil Fawlty and Knightrider, a surprising 21 per cent of men admit to talking to their cars at least ‘sometimes’. Only a silent minority, 25 per cent (298) of motorists claim never to gossip with their Golfs.
But why are so many drivers babbling to their BMW’s? The rise in the popularity of in-car sat navs could explain why more motorists have become comfortable communicating with their cars.
However not all car talk is idle chatter, some luxury models like the Jaguar XF now have a voice activated command system giving drivers a reason to mutter to their motor and the Mercedes E-class has a voice warning to tell drivers about upcoming road signs. Even the humble Austin Maestro MG from the 1980’s had a vocal warning when running low on petrol.
According to another survey from motors.co.uk, a quarter of drivers (26 per cent) admit to having a pet name for their motor such as Pablo the Prius, Connie the Corsa and Sexo the Saxo. This was despite only (21 per cent) of people giving their partner a similar term of endearment.UK motorists are talking to their Toyotas and speaking to their Seats according to new research by one of the UK’s largest used car websites which revealed that 75 per cent of motorists admit chatting to their cars.
The findings from a motors.co.uk poll of 1,200 drivers, found that 44 per cent (529) ‘sometimes’ natter to their Nissans with a further 31 per cent (373) of motor mouths claiming to ‘always’ converse with their car.
And following in the footsteps of Basil Fawlty and Knightrider, a surprising 21 per cent of men admit to talking to their cars at least ‘sometimes’. Only a silent minority, 25 per cent (298) of motorists claim never to gossip with their Golfs.
But why are so many drivers babbling to their BMW’s? The rise in the popularity of in-car sat navs could explain why more motorists have become comfortable communicating with their cars.
However not all car talk is idle chatter, some luxury models like the Jaguar XF now have a voice activated command system giving drivers a reason to mutter to their motor and the Mercedes E-class has a voice warning to tell drivers about upcoming road signs. Even the humble Austin Maestro MG from the 1980’s had a vocal warning when running low on petrol.
According to another survey from motors.co.uk, a quarter of drivers (26 per cent) admit to having a pet name for their motor such as Pablo the Prius, Connie the Corsa and Sexo the Saxo. This was despite only (21 per cent) of people giving their partner a similar term of endearment.
A warning has gone out to Britain’s ‘white van man’ as new research released by road safety organisations reveals that many popular van designs have dangerous blind spots, caused by the A-Pillars on either side of the windscreen, which are wide enough to hide a cyclist, motorbike or group of people from view. In order to raise awareness of the problem, the top 20 best and worst vehicles for driver visibility are revealed as the Government is urged to urgently act to educate learner drivers.
With 1,599 pedestrians mown down by vans each year, almost 50,000 (35%) accidents and over 500 deaths per year due to drivers ‘failing to look properly’ and almost 17,000 cyclists injured on the roads each year, Roadsafe, the cycling charity CTC and Autoglass have launched a campaign to press the government to review vehicle manufacturing guidelines to improve driver vision. They are also pushing the Driving Standards Agency to provide guidance for driving instructors on educating new drivers about the ‘A-Spot’ and for educating drivers on the road about A-Pillars.
MIRA (formerly the Motor Industry Research Association) was commissioned to test driver vision in different makes and models of modern vans and cars. The tests included a calculation of the A-Pillar blind spot, or ‘A-Spot’ – the width of objects obscured from a driver’s vision at 23 metres; the stopping distance required when travelling at 30mph.
In 2006, the same group of motorist experts first commissioned A-Pillar testing in a number of vehicles, revealing worrying blind spot results. Encouragingly, recent tests results show that manufactures have addressed the thickening A-Pillar in some newer models of cars, however many vehicles still have large blind spots and vans cause a particular problem so action is now been urged on the Government to change manufacturing guidelines.
About 40% of all UK motorists get seriously distracted on a regular basis while driving according to the most recent RAC Report on Motoring.
Those who are younger between the ages of 17 to 24 are the most likely to get pre-occupied, about 56% admitting that they get seriously distracted while driving.
Texting was the most frequent activity that teens admitted to doing while driving, with 26% stating they have texted while driving out of which 4% thought that there was no problem with doing so.
About 15% of other teens stated they have put their makeup on while driving and 20% drove with headphones on so they could listen to music.
The study also went on to look at how these distractions can impair driving performance and how far motorists can travel in a vehicle while their eyes leave the road for only a few seconds to look down or over.
One stunning fact is that in the five seconds it may take you to change a CD, if you know where everything is, at the rate of 70mph your car will have covered two football pitches worth of length without you knowing how vehicles around you are travelling.
At that speed, you would need 96 metres to come to a complete stop which is about as far as three football pitches, but you have already coved the length of two.
RAC director of technical David Bizley stated that it is clear that even though the Government has attempted to limit distractions the message is not reaching drivers as fatalities have almost doubled in just the last three years.
According to the Endsleigh Insurance motor theft index, Hull is the most dangerous place to park a car in Britain for the second year in a row.
New figures from the police show that the M11 Woordford, Essex speed camera is the busiest out of all of Britain’s CCTVs due to the fact that it has caught a little over 38,000 speeders which have resulted in £2.3m in fines.
Child pedestrians from areas that are more deprived are over four times as likely to be injured or killed in a traffic incident than children that live in wealthier areas, according to a new report presented to MPs.