This article is from page 2 of the 2008-05-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
can reveal that three drivers in the county have amassed 12 penalty points and, as a result, have been banned from driv- ing for six months.
Twenty drivers have received 10 points each, two have received nine points, 61 motorists have amassed eight points, while seven drivers have got seven points each.
279 drivers have received six points, while 32 motorists have earned five points. One driver has four penalty points, while 48 Clare motorists have
received three points.
The single biggest amount of driv- ers – 7,142 – have two points, while 146 drivers have one point each, bringing the total number of drivers to 9,001.
Drivers who receive 12 points with- in three years are then banned from driving for six months.
Penalty points apply to 36 offences, including careless driving, crossing a continuous white line, not wearing a seatbelt and speeding.
Offending drivers are issued with fixed charge notices and if they pay the fine, the points are added to their licenses. However, they can contest their cases in court and, if success- ful, the points will not be added to NCJ P mB BLO eoe
The single biggest offence commit- ted by Clare drivers over the past two years was speeding. 8,360 drivers were caught for this. 1,075 drivers were caught for not wearing their seat belts, while 715 were detected driv- ing while using their mobile phones. 324 drivers in Clare received points for crossing continuous or broken white lines.
The next most significant offence was drivers failing to obey traffic lights (174), followed by failure to comply with traffic signs (121).
Several Clare drivers were also caught for overtaking, driving with- out reasonable consideration, fail- ing to stop before spot lines and not ensuring children were wearing seat ere) LiSe
The head of the Clare Garda Divi- sion Traffic Corps, Inspector John Galvin said it was disheartening that sO many drivers were ignoring the road traffic legislation.
“It is disappointing to see that peo- ple are continuing to breach the laws, despite the enforcement and public campaigns. It is putting people’s lives at risk,” he said.
“We are continuing to enforce the regulations. All gardai are doing it throughout the division,” added In- spector Galvin.
‘Expect to see us on the roads,” he WEN e Eee b
As part of a nationwide crackdown on motoring offences, the traffic corps in the Clare division increased significantly in size last year.