Fatal Four Becomes ‘Fatal Five’ in New Roads Policing Push

Road safety officers from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary have announced a significant change to their enforcement priorities, expanding the long-standing “Fatal Four” campaign to a new “Fatal Five”.

The move will see careless and inconsiderate driving formally added to the list of key factors contributing to serious and fatal collisions across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The original Fatal Four campaign targeted the four most common causes of fatal crashes and life-changing injuries: speeding, impairment through drink or drugs, distraction such as mobile phone use, and not wearing a seatbelt.

Acting Superintendent Emma Hart, of the Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit, said:

“We know that the four most common causes of fatal collisions and serious, life-changing injuries on our roads are speeding, impairment (drink or drugs), distraction (including mobile phones) and not wearing a seatbelt.

However, our officers are constantly seeing examples of behaviour on the road that falls below the standards of a competent driver. We call this careless, or inconsiderate, driving and that is why we have changed our roads policing focus from Fatal Four to Fatal Five.

Whether it’s driving too close to the vehicle in front, undertaking or overtaking too fast or recklessly, misusing lanes, failing to give way, there are so many inconsiderate things motorists do which we all complain about on our daily commutes and school runs.

These may not come under the legal term of ‘dangerous driving’, but these are all things we will try and educate motorists on, because the consequences can still be devastating.

Where education does not work, we will look to conduct enforcement around this, with penalty points and a fine.

So we are asking all motorists, please just be considerate of others, your decisions behind the wheel matter, help keep our roads safer for everyone.”

Officers say the change reflects what they are seeing daily on the region’s roads, with tailgating, unsafe overtaking, poor lane discipline and failure to give way frequently contributing to collisions and near misses.

The force says education will remain the first approach, but enforcement action — including fines and penalty points — will follow where necessary.

Motorists are being urged to reflect on their driving habits and remember that even behaviours that fall short of “dangerous driving” can still have serious, and sometimes tragic, consequences.