Dangerous drivers who risk the safety of themselves and others by blocking tram tracks or recklessly ignoring traffic signals and signs are being warned of the consequences by West Midlands Metro.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In a recent case, a motorist was banned from driving for 22 months after going onto the grass section of track at St Chad\u2019s. He was found guilty of drink driving and was also given a substantial fine and community order.<\/p>\n
Anthony Stanley, West Midland Metro\u2019s Head of Operations and Safety, commented: \u201cAlthough there were a number of aggravating factors in this case, it highlights the legal consequences for those who fail to take appropriate care around the tram network. Working with the police, we fully investigate any incidents involving collisions between our trams, other road vehicles and our infrastructure. We will not hesitate to report any vehicles that present a risk to our customers and colleagues or disrupt services by blocking tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as the obvious safety risks, inconsiderate parking close to tram lines is causing unnecessary disruption for the travelling public and large repair bills for careless motorists.<\/p>\n
Anthony added: \u201cAll trams have a \u2018swept path\u2019 that extends well beyond the width of the tracks, but we still sometimes see some people trying to park right next to them. Once again, we would like to urge all motorists to pay particular attention to their surroundings when driving near the tramway, and always follow road markings, signage and signals, or they risk some severe consequences to their safety and their pocket!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dangerous drivers who risk the safety of themselves and others by blocking tram tracks or recklessly ignoring traffic signals and signs are being warned of the consequences by West Midlands Metro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55032,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55031\/revisions\/55032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}