DRIVERS in Dorset have come up with some extraordinary reasons for bad driving, road safety chiefs have revealed.

But police and council chiefs have warned there is no excuse.

The Dorset Road Safe Partnership’s No Excuse campaign – a blitz on careless and irresponsible driving – has been running for 14 months.

A list of the weirdest and most woeful excuses has been released to coincide with a major milestone for the project, with over 20,000 motoring offences processed since the campaign launched.

County council road safety manager Robert Smith said: “Some of the excuses given by motorists beggar belief. They show the scale of the challenge we face in to trying to encourage the irresponsible minority of motorists to give more thought to their actions.”

The excuses include: • A Dorset man stopped for using his mobile phone while driving was asked by the police officer whether the call was an emergency. The driver replied: “Er, actually, no – my wife was calling me to remind me to get a cucumber.”

• A female driver stopped for not wearing her seatbelt told officers: “I just had a spray-on tan applied and I don’t want to smudge it.”

• A woman driver, when asked why she hadn’t belted in any of the three children in the back of her car, replied: “They’re not my children!”

• An older woman stopped for driving at 61mph in a 30mph limit said: “I have to get to the shops as I don’t have any bread at home.”

• A van driver was seen driving with a blue screen in front of him. The officer asked if there was any reason he was using his mobile phone. He said: “I wasn’t on my phone. I had the laptop open on my lap and was reading that.”