INSTEAD of being taken to court, careless motorists in Lancashire are being sent back to school to learn how to drive safely.

But this is no soft option. The police-backed better-driving courses cost drivers £100 and they must pass stiff tests before they can be sure no further action will be taken against them.

Surely, this is a sensible scheme.

The results prove it.

They are so good that the limited, year-long experiment is now to be extended throughout the county.

For while the old system of fining and endorsing the licences of careless motorists may have made some more wary, it did nothing to make them better drivers once they had left court and got back in their cars.

This way, they are steered in the right direction.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.