Back to school for bad drivers
Cape Town - Drivers involved in bad accidents or who commit serious traffic offences might have to undergo retraining and retesting before being allowed back on to the road.
Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe said the prospect of retraining and retesting of drivers after a serious accident and serious traffic offences would make South Africans think twice in future when they got behind a steering wheel.
Key to this would be a new driver's licence points demerit system discussed at a departmental work session with delegates from the various provinces, states the department's website, www.transport.gov.za.
Under the system, drivers may forfeit their licences after too many offences.
Transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi told Die Burger this system would apply from the beginning of next year in Pretoria.
"Then the system will be extended to the rest of the country within 18 months."
Motorists apparently will receive points with the demerit system at the beginning of every year.
Demerits for every traffic offence would be deducted from these points.
Points carried over
A driver's licence will be suspended when the points are used up, and be cancelled completely if it has been suspended three times.
Drivers who committed no offences in a year will have their points carried over to the next year.
Accumulated points will not exonerate drivers from serious offences such as drunken driving or serious speeding offences.
Msibi did not want to confirm this information on Wednesday night.
He said the minister had to study the system again and approve it.
Automobile Association driver training manager Dave Johnston told Die Burger on Wednesday that he agreed in principle with a demerit system.
"The department will be able to point out serious offences with it.
"But I'm worried about traffic officers who commit offences themselves."
He said he hoped the plan also would indicate faults on the country's roads.
There were too many double-lane roads where the speed limit was only 60km/h.
Some dangerous single-lane roads through built-up areas had the same limit, and this was contradictory.
The speed limit could easily be raised on safe roads and be reduced on more-dangerous roads.
"Speed isn't the biggest reason for our country's road deaths.
"The real culprit is not keeping to the correct following distance between vehicles," he said.
News source: www.news24.co.za
Posted by: www.SouthAfrica-CarHire.com
