A NEW report from Halfords Autocentres reveals that a staggering 83% of UK motorists lack basic safety knowledge when they are on the road.
Some 55,000 drivers took part in Halford’s 2019 Roadworthiness Report quiz with more than 40,000 unable to achieve an 86% pass mark. The fail rate in London was 99%.
The quiz asked questions based on the Highway Code along with such things as the legal drink and drive limit and when to use fog lamps.
The Roadworthiness Report also revealed:
- Subaru drivers are the best-informed on road laws, with 11.6% of the Japanese brand’s owners getting every single question right, compared to an average of 6.9%
- 36% of drivers haven’t looked at the Highway Code since they passed their test
- 20% of motorists haven’t looked at the Highway Code in over 10 years and only 11.5% have read it in the past year
- Exactly 70% of drivers believe you should get in the left hand lane as soon as possible when there is a lane closure
- Only 27.6% (less than one in three) know that the correct procedure for lane merging is to drive to the end of the closed lane and merge-in-turn
- 44% of motorists believe that having your car serviced by a non-franchised garage can invalidate your warranty, which is completely untrue
- 40% of motorists have no idea what the minimum legal tyre tread depth is (1.6mm)
- 22% (more than one-in-five) think it’s legal to drive with an empty screenwash bottle
- Exactly 40% of motorists are unaware of the new items added to the MOT test in 2018
The Halfords report also revealed that a record 254 billion vehicle miles were driven in the UK in 2017.
While the Department for Transport figures show that 25,000 people were killed or seriously injured during the year although there has been a steady reduction since the mid-1960s despite a dramatic increase in vehicle ownership.
For more on the report visit halfordsautocentres.com
