In the fleet market, there was a 25% increase in sales which helped to offset the end of the clunkers scheme that offered motorists cash incentives towards a new vehicle if they scrapped an old model.

The SMMT industry group warned once again though that after the overall increase of the first six months of 2010 sales volumes are due to slip down.

SMMT chief executive, Paul Everitt, stated that the new car market performed well above market expectations during June.  He continued to say that the industry expects economic conditions to challenge it throughout the last six months of the year, and government action will be needed in order for businesses and consumers to receive credit.

The bestselling vehicle model in June was the Vauxhall Astra, which is the first time that the model hit the top of sales charts since 2008 in the month of February. Overall for the first half of the year, the Ford Fiesta model topped the charts ahead of both the Astra and the Focus by Ford.

The scrappage scheme accounted for only a small amount of new registrations after it closed at the beginning of 2010.

Funded by both the motor industry and the government, the scheme offered those who traded in a car that was more than ten years old for a newer vehicle 2,000 pounds.

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According to figures issued by the DVLA, 2009 saw in excess of 104,000 previously written off vehicles being allowed back on to the roads of the country after they passed safety checks.

This is an increase of nearly 10,000 vehicles on the previous year’s figures. Insurance companies will often abandon a vehicle rather than pay for costly repairs at main agents following a bad smash, these vehicles are termed write-offs.

These write-offs fall into different sections with category A and category B considered too seriously damaged to ever return to the road. However write-offs that fall into category C may be repaired, inspected, and then allowed back onto the road, however the DVLA will then stamp the V5 log-book with the words “previously damaged or repaired” denoting that the vehicle had previously been written off and had since been repaired, and passed a Vehicle Identification Check (VIC).

However perhaps the biggest problem for car buyers are write-offs that fall into category D, this is the lowest category of write-off vehicles, which supposedly are the least damaged, and require the least amount of repair.

The problem is that these vehicles can be repaired without notifying the DVLA, and without any kind of note in the logbook that this vehicle had been involved in an accident and had previously been written off.

The concern is that these vehicles require no inspection, not even an MOT if one is not due. Because there is no need to report a category D vehicle the DVLA have no figures on how many previously damaged vehicles are now back on the roads, or how many accidents occur with these vehicles.

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With minimum imposable fines of £60, the treasury could be richer by well over £300,000; however only about half the offenders will be prosecuted; those caught driving over 60mph.

Motoring groups such as Safe Speed and the Association of British Drivers claim that the cameras are an outrage and that their purpose is just a money-maker for the government.

Claire Armstrong, co-founder of Safe Speed, said that this revenue-raising will serve to alienate the public, and that it is not about safe driving, which can’t be determined by the driver’s rate of speed.

Nigel Humphries of the Association of British Drivers brought up the observation that many of the motorists on that stretch of the M6 are not local, and unaware of the repairs in progress or the speed limits, and said the cameras must be situated improperly.

In rebuttal, the Highway Agency says that the cameras are there to protect both motorists and the crew working on the road.  There are clear signs posted and the standard yellow cameras are quite visible to motorists, according to Kevin Tea at the Cumbrian Road Safety Partnership.  Another Highway Agency spokesman observed that the time saved by driving through at 70mph as opposed to the posted limit is only about 10 seconds.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Public service film

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