Over 11,500 Banner motorists have penalty points

A total of 11,687 motorists in Clare currently have penalty points endorsed on their driving licenses, with seven drivers having been disqualified from driving as they reached the maximum of 12 penalty points.

New figures released by the Road Safety Authority give details of the number of penalty points Clare motorists current hold as well as the number of penalty point notices that have been issued up to August of this year since the initiative began in 2002.
The majority of Clare motorists, 8,864, hold just two penalty points; 1,881 motorists hold four penalty points and 439 motorists have six penalty points. These figures include full and provisional license holders.
Speeding, driving while holding a mobile phone and driving without a safety belt are the most detected offences in Clare.
A total of 10,611 penalty point notices were issued for speeding offences. While notices issued for driving while holding a mobile phone amounted to 1,633 points.
Meanwhile the third highest offence was driving without a safety belt, where 1,147 penalty point notices were issued.
Inspector John Galvin, who is over the Clare Garda Road Traffic Division has warned that these particular offences are extremely serious and are among the major contributory factors to fatalities in road traffic collisions.
He noted that among penalty point offences speeding had the highest rate of detection in Clare and stressed that it was “unfortunate” that “people continue to disregard the speed limits and the detection reflects that”.
“It’s disappointing to see the figures as they are presenting and that people continue to flout the law in this regard. Speeding and failing to wear a safety belt are two of the major contributory factors to major injury and fatality on our roads,” he warned.
He noted that among the other offences cited were driving without reasonable consideration and failing to obey traffic lights. Inspector Galvin said these offences showed “disregard for the rules of the road”.
“Running red lights saw 306 points notices issued and this would be occurring in built up areas where there are large volumes of traffic. It is extremely dangerous for motorists to disregard traffic light signals and by doing so they put their own lives and other people’s lives at risk.
“People have to be aware that it is an offence to breach the traffic laws and its dangerous practice and may put their lives and others lives at risk.
“We as a force will continue to enforce this legislation and people should be mindful of it,” he concluded.