Driving demerit system to come into effect next year!
Looks like it’s time to wake up and start driving better! When the demerit system is implemented next year, as many as 1/10 drivers in Gauteng could have their licenses suspended and 1/20 could have them cancelled.
These results are based on an analysis performed by the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO). They have been undergoing a trial run in Gauteng over the past five years. The demerit system is expected to be introduced fully next year, meaning that these point deductions will become real and not just theoretical.
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Under this demerit system you are allowed to accumulate 12 demerit points before your licence will be suspended, possibly even cancelled!
A motorist’s licence can be suspended for three months for every point above the 12 points threshold a year.
Some examples of the points deductions are:
- Going through a red light;
- Speeding;
- Drunk driving;
- Unroadworthy vehicles.
The results from the trial period make for startling reading. In the past financial year – 2014/2015 – the following figures were recorded:
- 307 753 drivers in the province committed offences which would have accumulated points deductions.
- 29 616 licences would have been suspended.
- 14 748 licences would have been cancelled.
This means that unless there is a serious shift in the way that Gauteng drivers use the roads, many individuals could end up using the roads illegally, when AARTO is implemented nationally.
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Japh Chuwe, registrar of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency, said the national roll-out of Aarto would begin in April 2016 followed by the demerit system, adding:
“Aarto makes a direct contribution to road safety.”
Howard Dembovsky, the founder of the Justice Project SA, told the Saturday Star he was not surprised by the number of projected suspended and cancelled licences.
“If anything, it surprises me that there are so few. Generally, the way people drive in this country, if law enforcement was done properly, those figures would be more like a million in the first two weeks.
“We have a whole lot of absolute hooligans on the road.”
The roll-out has been held back by the promulgation of the AARTO Amendment Bill, according to Chuwe.
“The key element provided for in the bill is the electronic serving of fines to motorists. The benefit is people will get their fines much quicker.
We have done everything that is required from our side. The tabling of an amendment bill in Parliament is beyond our control.”
Provisions of the new National Road Traffic Act regulations, Chuwe said, would make it compulsory for all motorists who renew their licences to provide proof of residence, as they do at the banks.
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He said the agency would also verify the last updated details of motorists with the credit bureaus.
“The more information we have, the more credible our database is going to be.
We all understand that too many people are dying on our roads. It’s not good enough to look at this as a statistical base.”
Chuwe said the demerit system will be a “great equaliser,” further adding:
“When you’re a multimillionaire you may not feel the pain of a penalty of R1 500, whereas if you’re a gardener you would.
But the demerit points say once you are levied, irrespective of whether you’re poor or rich, you will all be subjected to the same thing.”
Dembovsky supports the points demerit system wholeheartedly, but remains critical of the delays in rolling the system out countrywide.
“They have been piloting this thing for five years with two jurisdictions out of 287 municipalities, nine provincial authorities and the national traffic police.
The sooner they bring in the points demerit system, the better. But the problem with traffic police is that their focus is on revenue generation as opposed to physical law enforcement, which would make a difference.
If you’re sitting taking photos because you need to drive revenues, you’re never going to change behaviour.
All that’s going to happen when they bring this points system in is that some people will get their driver’s licences cancelled. They won’t be able to get to work and so will continue to drive with suspended licences because the chances of them getting caught are practically zero.
If you transform the way in which traffic policing operates, if that is done, the system will have an effect.”
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Chuwe added that the demerit system was not a punitive measure but would be used as rehabilitative tool.
Source: IOL Motoring