Road safety and breakdown organisation GEM Motoring Assist is urging courts across the country to get tough on drivers and riders who accumulate 12 penalty points on their licences.
The call comes as a further example emerges of a driver who successfully invoked the ‘exceptional hardship’ excuse and managed to persuade magistrates that he should be allowed to continue driving.
Andrew Prangell of Swanage was convicted last month of failing to give information relating to the driver of a Vauxhall van, following offences committed last year. He received six points for each count, but escaped a ban after magistrates heard an exceptional hardship plea.
Nearly 11,000 people are driving with 12 or more points on their licences, according to figures releases in October 2018 (Figures from Brake, October 2018).
GEM road safety officer commented: “A driving ban should be inevitable for anyone who has managed to tot up 12 penalty points on their licence. It takes a particularly careless, thoughtless or reckless person to reach this level, and their disregard for the law means they each represent a big risk for the rest of us who share the roads with them.
“The time for drivers to consider the consequences of a ban should come long before they find themselves with the prospect of 12 points. Of course a ban will cause considerable levels of hardship. But courts need to give more thought to other road users – particularly the most vulnerable – who face the greatest danger when such high-risk drivers are allowed to keep their licences.”
Leave a Reply