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#How is your driving? Half of drivers admit breaking traffic laws

A new report has highlighted widespread disregard for traffic laws among UK drivers

Nearly 50 per cent of drivers admit breaking traffic laws, with around half of them doing so deliberately, according to a survey.

As many as 49 per cent said they flouted road regulations, the poll from road safety charity Brake and insurance company Direct Line showed.

Of those breaking the rules, half said they did so through inattention while the other half did so deliberately because they thought they could get away with it or did not agree with the laws.

Driverless cars heading onto British roads in 2015

As many as 60 per cent of women surveyed, but only 42 per cent of men, said they never broke road regulations, with men twice as likely as women to flout the laws because they thought they could get away with it.

The poll, of 1,000 drivers, also revealed:

• Drivers are more confident in the safety of their own driving than they were 10 years ago, with 69% rating themselves as safer than most other drivers, up from 50% in 2005;
• Drivers judge each other more harshly than themselves, with 58% saying there are more dangerous drivers than safe drivers on UK roads;
• Young drivers (17-24) are most likely to rate their driving as safer than others, with 58% saying they are "much" safer.
• When drivers were asked what unsafe behaviour they had witnessed most in the last year, distraction (such as from mobile phones) was the biggest concern, followed by tailgating, speeding and risky overtaking.

Brake deputy chief executive Julie Townsend said: "As these figures make clear, law breaking on our roads is not just down to a minority but endemic.

"For whatever reason, many seem to feel they are beyond the law or that traffic laws are somehow optional. This represents a failure by government to ensure traffic policing is receiving adequate priority and to make clear the importance and legitimacy of traffic laws."

Rob Miles, director of motor at Direct Line, said: "Drivers continue to flout the rules of the road without realising the devastating impact their actions can have. Traffic laws are there for a reason and breaking them puts lives at risk."

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*Questions from road safety charity Brake