With Glastonbury pageant kicking off in every week’s time, punters shall be packing the ultimate bits earlier than setting off to get pleasure from 5 days of revelry within the fields.
Attendees can anticipate blended climate and the encircling motorways and key A-roads are prone to be congested from Wednesday to Friday as round 200,000 individuals head for Worthy Farm.
Nevertheless, the motoring consultants at Nationwide Scrap Automobile have warned drivers of the straightforward errors they might make that would land them with some hefty fines.
Motoring skilled Dorry Potter at Nationwide Scrap Automobile explains, “correct preparation and adherence to visitors legal guidelines are essential to stop accidents and guarantee a easy journey to the pageant.
“Thorough automobile checks together with tyre strain, fluid ranges and battery well being are important to keep away from any breakdowns en path to the pageant or any nasty surprises when leaving the location on the Monday.
“Moreover, 10-20% of all crashes are estimated to be triggered as a result of driver fatigue, with motorways and twin carriageways experiencing the very best quantity of crashes. With festivals taking place in rural settings, and with social gathering goers travelling lengthy distances the dangers are clear. Ensure you’re nicely rested and never underneath the affect earlier than getting in your automobile forward or put up the pageant”
Soiled quantity plates can set you again £1,000
With potential rain forecasted for the pageant, drivers are suggested to maintain their quantity plates clear to keep away from a hefty high quality.
Underneath the Car Excise and Registration Act 1994 if you’re caught with a unclean quantity plate, it’s possible you’ll obtain an on the spot high quality of £100 or, if a matter is handed to courtroom this will enhance as much as a stage 3 high quality of £1000.
Utilizing your horn can come at a worth
Whereas lengthy queues of visitors come hand in hand with festivals, regardless of how irritating it might really feel honking your horn for causes aside from alerting visitors of your presence, equivalent to out of frustration, can lead to a high quality. Horn use is mostly restricted to warning functions solely.
A horn ought to solely be used when warning somebody of any hazard as a result of one other automobile or some other type of hazard, and to not point out your annoyance.
It’s also unlawful to make use of a horn on a transferring automobile on a restricted highway, principally a highway that has road lights and a 30 mph restrict, between the instances of 11:30 p.m. and 07:00 a.m.
Police can situation motorists with a high quality for the unlawful use of automobile horns. That is often a Fastened Penalty Discover (FPN) of £30. If drivers don’t agree with an FPN being issued, they will problem the choice in courtroom – but when they lose, the high quality may be elevated to as much as £1,000.
Be careful for overloading your automobile
From tents to extra passengers to foods and drinks, autos are sometimes packed to the brim when heading to a pageant. Nevertheless, based on the DVSA’s steering on roadside checks, drivers can face a set penalty of £300 if their automobile is discovered to be overloaded by 15% or extra. Overloading by 0-10% can lead to a £100 penalty, whereas overloading by 10-15% can result in a £200 high quality.
The utmost payload weight will range relying on the scale of your automobile. For smaller vehicles, such because the Renault Clio, Fiat 500, and Volkswagen Polo, the utmost payload weight may be between 385kg and 482kg.
Assuming you may have 4 grownup passengers, every with suitcases, tents and provides, it turns into fairly straightforward to exceed a 400kg payload.
The one flashing lights ought to be on the pageant website
Rule 110 of the Freeway Code states that flashing your headlights ought to solely be used to speak ‘I’m right here’, thus alerting different drivers to your presence.
Should you’re caught flashing your lights out of anger, giving strategy to different drivers or suggesting some other type of message you can be fined as much as £1,000.
Take away your wellies earlier than driving
Undoubtedly your ft shall be adorned with an array of footwear throughout the pageant from wellies to crocs. Muddy wellies or footwear nonetheless are an enormous danger when driving as they will simply slip on the pedals.
Should you had been to be concerned in an accident and police noticed your inappropriate footwear, it might be famous that you simply had been “driving with out due care and a spotlight”, which might imply you got a £100 high quality and three factors in your licence.
If the case goes to courtroom, the high quality rises to a most £5,000 high quality, 9 penalty factors and will even see you banned from driving – so it’s finest to place some correct footwear on earlier than you set off.
It’s beneficial to pack a change of footwear and garments and retailer them in your automobile all through the pageant to make sure you have one thing dry and cozy to put on for the journey dwelling.
