driving using mobile phone
More than 8000 drivers in the UK have 12 or more points on their licence - despite an official upper limit of 12 before a driver faces disqualification.
A total of 14 UK drivers have more than 25 points - all of them men.
In fact the gender imbalance is very pronounced: of the top 99 licence point holders, just fourteen are women; 2256 men are still driving with more than 12 points on their licence, and 351 women are still driving with more than 12 points their licence.
The DVLA states that the official top limit for licence points is 12 (or six for those who have held a licence for three years of less) - but a Freedom of Information request carried out by the Institute of Advanced Motorists revealed that there were a surprisingly large number of drivers still on the roads with far more penalty points.
A male driver from Warrington has the highest number of points, 36.
IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “Law abiding drivers will be shocked that so many drivers are on the road who have more than 12 points. The ‘totting up’ principle is supposed to give a simple four strikes and you are out message. Anything more than this should be a disqualification, unless there are the most exceptional circumstances.
“There must be tighter practice in courts and at the DVLA to take these motorists off the road or ensure they take a driver retraining course to help them break their points habit.”
After an unpromising start, having to be bribed by her parents to learn to ride without stabilisers, Sarah became rather keener on cycling in her university years, and was eventually persuaded to upgrade to proper road cycling by the prospect of a shiny red Italian bike, which she promptly destroyed by trapping a pair of knickers in the rear derailleur. Sarah writes about about cycling every weekend on road.cc.
24 comments
how does anyone allow themselves to get more than 1! ffs.
makes a mockery of the idea of points, it makes a mockery of drivers being licensed when they can do as they please safe in the knowledge the licence will not be revoked.
Plead hardship and drive away from the court.
no exceptions! that is why we are where we are
36 points?! Well obviously he doesn't give a toss then does he? FFS
I'd like to know who's insuring these people.
I managed to accumulate three SP50s in the space of less than three years (this was a decade ago). Carrying nine points on my license scared me somewhat; I was, and still am quite dependant on my driving license for work.
Needless to say I made very sure I didn't get any more points before the points I had expired, and I haven't had any since.
Looks like I needn't have worried 8|, but 36 (!?) surely that is a mistake.
In your piece it doesn't say when the IAM requested the information, because I seem to remember a very similar story about drivers still retaining licenses after amassing points around 1 to 2 years ago.
Everybody was rightly outraged then as well, but nothings happened to change the status quo.
In the land of the motorway the half blind driver is king.
Beggars belief. Remind me what it is that the police and DVLA get paid to do again? This country is a joke sometimes.
The undisputed blame lies at the feet of the courts. They are soft and pathetic when it comes to the sob stories listed by defending solicitors.
This has to stop and i bet the vast majority of these drivers dont even tell their insurance companies they have the points.
As long as the premium is getting paid the ins co dont give a damn.
Neither the dvla nor the police have any control over how many points a driver is allowed on his licence, as above its the courts who preside over points.
Driving is too often seen as a right, & driving offences minor. The points system needs to have a muliplier on bnoth points and fines, and be an absolute ban at 12, not this namby-pamby softness cos the driver whinges hardship. That is exactly why they should lose the licence - to suffer and learn a lesson.
On the other hand, daughters BF was recently handed 3 points on previously clean licence for having a flat tyre. Just sayin' - I'm as astonished as anyone her that this "system" is so open to corruption.
Or even, anyone "HERE", soz.
There has long been a culture of the Sacred Driving Licence in which dangerous driving is tolerated. It really is time that we ended this culture. It is time that we dependence with the defence of "exceptional hardship", these are all repeat offenders, and also brought in a law of Strict Liability which would make it completely clear that drivers ARE responsible for their actions.
WTF !!!!!
Exceptional hardship ... Well tough I say. You break the
law you pay the price - no exceptions !
If you google "exceptional hardship driving ban" (or similar) you'll find dozens of solicitors willing to represent you along with glowing testimonies from clients of how they got them off the hook even though they had 12 points/had killed someone etc
It's a lucrative business for them, all they need to do is prove that the driver and/or the family would suffer if the licence was revoked.
Personally, if I was the judge, I'd say that THAT WAS THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT!! You've proved you can't drive for toffee, so now you and your dependants have to suffer the consequences. Oh if only it were that simple...
Surely the exceptional hardship defence should only be allowed once, maximum twice (i.e. no more than 15 points) and then the court must take a look and say - you have to learn to obey the law, any more points and it will be an immediate ban. Make that part of the condition of not taking the licence away the first time and enforce some form of 'responsibility' for one's own actions... Or would that seem too sensible in a climate where there's blame and nothing is ever your fault, it was always someone else.
I'm so angry about this WTF etc.
Can't be bothered to look into it any further. But just REALLY ANGRY, mental furious.
true, my brother got himself banned a few years ago on holliday down south for drink driving 1 year ban and a fine he did not stop driving. Reasoning "I was banned in the south the police in Yorkshire don't know." Somehow he was not cought in the year ban but has got expensive insurance, still it is too easy to get away with, even with the ANPR cameras I wonder what would have happened had he have been caught driving while banned.
People who accrue 12 points could argue that they will face "exceptional risk" if they are banned from driving because there will have to walk/cycle on roads with 8000 drivers with over 12 points on their licence, making it too dangerous.
As someone who has driven for decades, the total number of points I have had during this time is zero.
There must be no more flexibility. No more feeble excuses: 'but I need to drive because of my job / elderly mother / family'.
These dangerous bastards need to be banned, plus no new licence until they have gone back to L plates and passed the extended test.
I don't believe the 'flat tyre'. I bet it was driving with a flat tyre? Because that's 'driving without due care', hence the points.
We live in a society ruled by the tyranny of the motor car. This is what has to stop.
Sentences handed down to car drivers for the carnage they create are truly derisory. It is easier to get away with killing someone by using a motor vehicle as the weapon of choice than by any other means. To some extent, this is down to the "There, but for the grace of God go I" mentality of jurors, magistrates and judges but, if there is any better example of societal denial for the damage caused by one's actions, the death, destruction and plain unpleasantness caused by the apparent acceptance that "the motorist is king" is hard to beat. As I, and many others have found, Politicians, Police and CPS do very little to inspire any confidence that this will ever change.
Elsewhere in these forums we have a recent example of a motorist assaulting a cyclist and escaping with a mere caution whereas a recent case involving a cyclist assaulting a motorist attracted a conviction of assault despite both the cyclist and the driver in these cases having prior clean records, so why the disparity in sentencing? It is quite apparent that, if you are a motorist, you can get away with (and, indeed, expect to get away with) far more than should realistically be expected in what we would like to consider a "just" society. Is it really any surprise, then, that we have thousands of drivers who should have been disqualified still at large?
There is very clearly a lack of political will to make motorists truly accountable for their actions. This has been going on for years and sanctioned by all political parties, the Police and the CPS.
Until we get a government with something more than sub-zero going on in the gonad area which then results in them standing up to the motorist lobby, then this will continue.
So what was Chris Huhne thinking about? It appears that he could have saved himself a lot of trouble by simply hiring a good lawyer.
You have to wonder if those "people" have a conscience.
Probably not, until if, say, they ran-over and killed a child while being banned from driving.
Then, of course, they would shed crocodile tears for sympathy in court to get a lighter sentence, obviously, the bastards.