MOST of us will warmly welcome the new powers for the police to act on offences like tailgating and middle-lane hogging.

Although no statistics are available, it doesn’t take a genius, a highways expert or a traffic officer to work out that tailgating in particular is a huge factor in accidents – as well as being one of the most irritating and frustrating offences.

Our lawmakers should not hesitate to keep on ratcheting up the penalties on motorists who put the lives of others at risk. Paul Andrews and his family know all about that.