THE INTRODUCTION of five new driver penalty point offences will serve as a deterrent to offending motorists and make the State’s roads safer, the Department of Transport has said.
From May 1st, drivers will be issued with five penalty points for driving faulty vehicles, driving vehicles without a certificate of road worthiness and for failing to have an up-to-date National Car Test (NCT) certificate.
Motorists who fail to address defects identified by the NCT will receive three penalty points, while truck drivers who strike overhead bridges, which occurred on 720 occasions between 2001 and 2006, will also receive three points.
“There has been quite a bit of discussion between the department, gardaí and the Road Safety Authority about these matters,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said.
“And we all considered that adding penalty points for these offences would serve as a deterrent and make our roads that bit safer. They have always been offences but were previously just punished with a fine.”
Penalty points were first introduced under the Road Traffic Act in 2002. Initially the government outlined 69 offences as suitable for penalty points, but only 37, mostly related to driver behaviour, have been activated to date.
Motorists found to be committing any of the five new offences will have to appear in court, where they could receive both penalty points and a fine. At present those who fail to undergo the NCT on time are fined €1,500.
Figures issued by the Road Safety Authority show that 752,244 notices have been issued to motorists since penalty points were introduced in 2002.
The vast majority of these, more than 500,000, were for speeding, followed by some 65,000 for using a mobile phone while driving and 54,000 for not wearing a seatbelt.
Minister of State at the Department of Transport Noel Ahern welcomed the development.
“Drivers are becoming more aware, fatalities are down but there are still more than 20 people a month dying on the roads. We want to see a further reduction in that number,” he said.
Mr Ahern said further offences could yet be adapted into the penalty point system before the end of the year, but that the department did not want to suffocate the courts with new cases.
“There are a number of other offences that we plan to bring in over time and they again will mostly be related to vehicle standards.”
Penalty points: new offences
Five points:
Driving a dangerously defective vehicle.
Driving without a certificate of road worthiness.
Failing to have an up-to-date NCT certificate.
Three points:
Truck drivers who allow their vehicle to strike an overhead bridge.
Driving a vehicle without repairing a fault identified at the NCT.
