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Car wheel at speed copyright Simon MacMichael.jpg51 points and still not banned – IAM concerned about repeat offenders retaining their driving licences
A Freedom of Information Request to the DVLA by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has revealed that three people who currently have 40 or more points on their driving licence are still permitted to drive. The worst of those has amassed 51 points and the IAM has expressed its concern about the message being sent.
Sarah Sillars, IAM chief executive officer, said: “If the public sees that persistent offenders are getting away with it, they may believe that road traffic rules – which let not us not forget, are designed for their safety – are ineffective or unimportant.”
The DVLA said that 13 people had 28 points or more on their licence. None of the top three has been disqualified.
Essex tops list for number of careless driving convictions
A driver in Liverpool has 42 points on their licence after two counts of speeding in a 30mph area and five of not reporting driver of vehicle.
A Basildon driver has the same number of points for seven instances of failing to report driver details. The person was not disqualified from driving as magistrates accepted mitigating circumstances including ‘extreme hardship’ through loss of income.
Topping the list, however, is a provisional licence holder in Oxford who has racked up 51 points via three speeding offences in a 30mph zone and seven offences of not providing driver details.
The IAM enquiry found that the number of drivers with 12 or more points has gone up by nine per cent in seven months between March and October 2015 – from 6,884 to 7,517.
While the DVLA does not hold details as to whether all of those individuals are still on the road, it did say: “In a small percentage of cases where the driver has accumulated 12 or more penalty points, the agency understands that a court can exercise its discretion and not disqualify the driver. In the majority of these cases, magistrates may have decided to allow drivers to retain their entitlement to drive where it is considered that disqualification would cause exceptional hardship.”
DVLA data shows that of 45 million driving licence holders in Britain, three million have points on their licence, with 100,000 having been disqualified over the past four years for reaching 12 points of whom four per cent got all their points in one go.
On behalf of IAM, Sillars expressed concern about inconsistency in how the law is being applied:
“The IAM has been highlighting this issue for several years now and we appreciate that the flow of information between the DVLA and the courts is slowly improving, which will allow the courts to make better decisions while armed with the full facts.
“However these improvements cannot come quickly enough to deliver a truly joined-up approach to the judicial process. Individual courts making decision on prosecutions can lead to inconsistency in how the law is applied which risks devaluing the simple ‘12 points and you’re out’ road safety message.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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33 comments
I have 5 friends now killed by drivers.
The last one was a girl whose parents we knew from antenatel classes, so she was about the same age as my daughter, now 19.
Her head was smashed into a car windscreen and she then bounced across the road into an oncoming car. She was killed almost instantly. The first driver said she hadn't seen her in the road. It was dry and daylight, and in Cambridge city where cyclists are more common.
I watched her parents (now seperated) bury their daughter, along with all her school friends, family and many who knew her during her life. Her name was Beth.
This is the most common way for those under 25 in the UK to be killed or seriously injured. In any other format there would be national outcry at such disgusting and preventable statistics.
But no. These are 'accidents' and the 'rights' of drivers and motoring must be preserved at any price, and the price is indeed very very high.
This cultural problem is way way out of control. From judges to traffic police, they are all complicit in failing to bring to book lazy, careless, selfish and arrogant behaviour on the PUBLIC highway.
Juries are often all motorists without fair representation of cyclists, when a driver actually gets into a court.
This is plain unlawful and morally wrong, just as racisism and child abuse is.
Amsterdam had street fights between drivers and parents of KSI'ed children in the 1970s and they even blocked off city streets.
Perhaps this is what it will take in the UK for society to be shaken from its motor myopia.
Although London's weekly die-ins - the largest regular demonstrations in the UK over the past 2 years - hasn't shifted the half-wits in TfL much....
How is it hardship for someone with a provisional licence?
If someone only has a provisional licence and they've racked up 51 points then presumably they will never be allowed to get a full licence? And if that isn't the case then it f-ing well ought to be! How can someone with only a provisional licence play the exceptional hardship card anyway???
Clicked on this story becuase I wondered what penalty points had to do with the IAM Cycling team. Come on I'm not the only one.
it's time to make the magistrates culpable for their decisions; you let a repeat offender continue to put law-abiding adults and children at risk & you go to jail when they, surprise surprise, repeat offend. Oh silly me, the magistrate trying their pal would probably plead 'professional ethics' rather than do the right thing. A bit like asking a consultant to attend a hearing into another doctor's misdemeanors...
Twelve points and a bit of leniency allowed, 15 and the ban. The clown on trial should be under no illusions that their continued law-breaking will affect them and theirs; if magistrates don't have big enough dangly bits then they are not fit to do the job. Sometimes they just love to show just how 'human' they are; and the defence lawyers just love that!
Picking up on others' comments, I take it that the police make sure that all other aspects of the drivers' legitimacy are checked...
Perhaps the courts could ask the private parking scammers for tips. They seem to manage to get info out of the DVLA just fine.
the thing i see, how many drivers are caught for speeding? how many offences will actually get you 12 points.
Basically if you have 12 points you have either been incredibly unlucky, or you regularly disregard the law anyway.
It isn't actually that hard to not speed if you actually pay attention, and if you can't pay attention are you really safe to be in control(?) of a vehicle?
If birzzles' friend is well-paid, then taxis or perhaps a chauffeur would be in order?
As the first poster has it, it's almost funny.
Flabergasted.... The hardship thing needs to be looked at, like others have said if your a repeate offender and not learning from the 1st, 2nd or 3rd time then tough, they put themselves in to the position of hardship no one else.
What would happen if i went stealing to feed my family and got caught? Could I use the argument that im in hardship and get away with it everytime???? I very much doubt it.
Im fed up of seeing drivers effectivly putting two fingers up to road traffic law and making it an unsafe enviroment for everyone else. Im sure some of these people would use the 'do you know who i am' argument as well......
i know a very well paid single mom with 5 kids and around 19 points for speeding. Taking a license away for a series of speeding offences is totally absurd. The impact is be enormous.
I understand there are lots of cretins on this website who believe car drivers who speed should have their lives destroyed. But we are not talking about drunk drivers here, or those who have been involved in an accident. If you think stealing 3 slices of pizza in 3 separate incidents deserves life behind bars then you should crawl back under your stone.
Thing is, it's actually not bloody difficult not to take points for speeding. You don't speed. I took 3 points 13 years ago. I was peed off with myself because it happened in a 30 zone and that's normally the kind of place I pay particularly attention to my speed. It hasn't happened since. And I'm no saintlier driver than anyone else.
If she can't afford to not drive then maybe she shouldn't continue to drive like a selfish cunt.
Absolutely, if you don't speed then you don't get points, it's not as though she can claim she didn't realise speeding was against the law.....I think 'selfish cunt' sums it up perfectly.
If you think a driving ban for 4 speeding offences is wrong then the resolution should be the reduction in penalty points from 3 to 2, not simply ignoring the totting up process.
I think it is perfectly reasonable, because this is not something that happens out of the blue, either the person in question routinely speed all the time, or the points accumulate over a considerable period. Being at 6 points should be enough of a warning to take more care and drive slower.
I can accept someone who gets to 12 points being let off a driving ban with arguments about hardship etc, but we are talking about people repeatedly making the same argument. There should be no second leniency.
To compare loss of driving license for 12 months with being locked up for life makes you look like the cretin. Driving should not be considered a right, it is a privilege, and those that have proved themselves irresponsible should lose that privilege.
Effectively we are saying we can tolerate lower standards from those drivers who spend most time on the road, because to remove them from the road would cause “exceptional hardship”. We should expect higher standards from professional drivers. And for anyone else they can look at public transport or bicycles if they cannot drive within the law.
I don't think they should have their lives destroyed. But if they do it repeatedly they should definitely lose their licence, and if that happens there will be precisely one person to blame.
You're talking as if your friend will be the victim of some injustice. If losing her license will have an enormous impact, then there is an obvious step she can take to prevent that happening.
Now, you do understand that not having a driving licence is not the same thing as having your life destroyed...? But if your (presumably a real person and not a fictitious creation for the sake of the argument?) friend really believes that to be the case then perhaps she ought to drive a little more carefully, m'kay?
I bet she just the type of person who would spack out if she saw a cyclist jump a red light too
FFS.
The point is about taking responsibility for one's one actions -19 points isn't just careless once or twice, it's simply not giving a shit and/or paying attention to signs and the surroundings. In her - or any similar case - a ban is the only thing they'll understand if they're continually given more rope each time. Perhaps hitting her in the pocket and the inconvenience of public transport and taxis - which she may better placed to afford than some - might make her think a little...
Oh, and my OH had the dubious pleasure of having a sales rep that had racked up the points - IIRC she was wondering what to do about him, when he managed to rack up a few more and get banned anyway. Idiot
Everyone so far has been gentle on you, but you are a fucking idiot. "...lots of cretins on this website who speed believe they should have their lives destroyed". IF her 19 points are JUST for speeding, she is the one who is the cretin, or who shouldn't be driving. And would it really destroy her life if she couldn't drive for a year? "The impact is enormous" you say; her total disregard for the laws of the road and what she could cause is the enormous impact. How many offences is 19 points? At least 6?
Most people on here drive as well as ride bikes, so don't assume we are all pyschopathic car-haters.
Can someone send this story to Mr Loophole, I would love to know his thoughts on this.
Sounds like she may already be on his client list...
i don't see why someone should be let off the appropriate punishment just because they have been a prolific breeder. They also have responsibilities to the law and the rest of society don't you know...
Why should being well paid have anything to do with it ? Just ban the bitch, if she's that well paid then she can employ a law abiding chauffeur. Win Win.
I must admit if I had that many shags I'd probably speed to get around them.
"Mom" ? !
"license" ?!
The only cretin here is you.
Others have said nowhere near enough. I worry, I really do.
Not necessarily a cretin. Either American, or they forgot to switch their spellchecker/predictive texting settings to "British English "...
May well be American - given that in the US driving is seen as absolutely essential and almost a basic human right. I know life-long non-drivers who had to give in and get a car only once they moved to that country.
Over here, I don't accept that anyone absolutely _has_ to drive (if you live in some ludicrously remote rural location - improve your cycling ability or just move somewhere else). But I can sell see people thinking differently in the US.
(Really, its just a non-viable country in the long run, as it can only function at all while there's cheap fuel to run cars, planes and air-conditioning with.
Without massive use of those three things the place would grind to a halt while much of the population died of heatstroke.)
the if potential impact isn't enormous enough for her to pay more attention to her speed then it isn't, in her eyes, enormous.
Wow. Clearly Birzzles hasn't had the pleasure of two police officers knocking at his door to confirm identity before breaking the news that his 5 year old sister has been killed by our wonderful motoring fraternity.
Been there, done that and I will not apologise beforehand for describing it as a #ucking horrific process that ruins the lives of those left behind.
Little white coffin with family on their knees in devastation saying goodbye to their little girl and her killer, banned for 18 months and a fine of around £1200 as it 'was an accident'.
Quite frankly people like you who appear to defend and excuse the selfish actions of others for no good reason whatsoever are a complete disgrace to humanity, no consideration at all for the needless violence dished out to others in relentless fashion.
The next time you choose to jump to the defence of such people just consider the fact that you are aligning yourself with people who cause harm and fatalities and ask yourself...Are you really that in love with the motor vehicle that you'd let someone kill you tomorrow for no good reason?
The mind boggles, there are some bloody scary people out there and they all seem to think death is fine so long as its other people getting killed.
The sense of absolute entitlement motorists seem to have about inflicting harm to others unchallenged is absolutely scandalous.
Perhaps it really is time that vulnerable road users fought back when views like this appear typical. Paving slabs and bridges might work every time a vulnerable user is 'accidentally' slaughtered by a car...government does squat about killing with cars so why not start evening the score?
Something has got to change, this is basically mass killing and government refuses to intervene.
This just suggests you have no grasp of how dangerous motor vehicles are. They are the leading cause of death of children in the UK. (http://visual.ons.gov.uk/what-are-the-top-causes-of-death-by-age-and-gen...) She of all people oufht to be bothered by this. Perhaps you should remind this acquaintance of yours that hitting a child with a motor vehicle at 30 is 5 times more likely to kill them than at a 20. This is the reason for speed limits - if you're speeding in a 30 limit you will have far less chance of slowing to 20 before impact if a child runs out. Unless she wants to be responsible for killing someone else's child she really ought to slow down.
The impact to the family of someone killed by a speeding driver is greater by some order of magnitude, especialy if the casualty is the breadwinner.
STATS19 data shows that speeding contributes to about 31% of road casualties.
Avoiding a speeding conviction is easy. Don't speed.
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