Driving in flip flops could leave you with a £5,000 fine, nine points and a road ban

Driving in flip flops can leave you with a careless driving charge, a fine and penalty points on your license. 

it turns out you shouldn’t be nipping to the shops in flip flops in your car, as they are deemed dangerous and could lead to a careless driving charge if they impede your ability to drive safely. 

It comes from Rule 97 of the Highway Code which states that drivers must have ‘footwear and clothing which does not prevent you using the controls in the correct manner’.

The premise is that flip flops could easily fall off your feet, prevent you from pressing the pedals hard enough to brake quickly, or become wedged under pedals. This poses a danger as it could cause you to drive erratically or crash.

If you are stopped by the police while driving in footwear that could be deemed the reason for an accident, you can be charged with driving without due care and attention, also called careless driving. 

Careless driving can lump you with a £100 on-the-spot fine and three penalty points on your license.  

For cases that end up being contested in court, the charge can attract a £5,000 fine and up to nine penalty points, and even a court-imposed driving ban.

Around one in three people think it is actually illegal to drive in loose fitting footwear, however driving in flip flops itself isn’t actually illegal.

The RAC suggests that footwear should have no thicker than a 10mm sole, have enough grip to stop your foot falling off the pedals, not be too heavy, shouldn’t limit ankle movement and also narrow enough to avoid accidentally pressing two pedals at once.