1 in 7 motorists escape penalties

ALMOST one in seven motorists detected of committing a penalty point offence escape any punishment as gardaí are unable to apply penalty points to the offending driver.

A total of 184,828 motorists have avoided penalty points after committing a road traffic offence because of the inability of gardaí to impose such a sanction.

They account for 14.8% of all penalty points issued between the start of the scheme in October 2002 and the end of 2008.

The majority of offences in which penalty points cannot be imposed relate to either foreign-registered vehicles or unlicensed Irish vehicles. Penalty points could not be issued in more than 51,000 such offences last year.

Central Statistics Office figures show that almost 1.25 million penalty points have been issued since the introduction of the scheme seven years ago.

However, there was a 2% reduction in the number of points issued last year when a total of 318,931 points were recorded – a decrease of 7,667.

According to the CSO, male drivers account for more than 75% of all offences detected under the penalty point scheme.

There are 41 separate offences for which penalty points can be imposed.

Seven out of every 10 penalty point offences issued relate to speeding – the most common offence. However, there was a reduction in the number of motorists caught driving in excess of speed limits last year – down 15,564 or 6.5% to 225,305.

The second most frequent penalty points offence is driving a vehicle while holding a mobile phone. Some 31,793 motorists had penalty points imposed in 2008 for using a phone while driving – up more than 44% on the previous year. It means an average of 87 motorists are detected for the offence each day.

The next most common offence types are driving without a safety belt, failing to obey traffic lights and failing to comply with prohibitory traffic signs.

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey recently announced details of a new Road Traffic Bill which would see motorists incurring three penalty points if caught driving between the existing blood alcohol concentration limits and proposed lower limits.