Number Plates News

Irish L-Drivers Face New Crackdown

03 September 2010

In new measures announced by the Irish Road Safety Authority, careless learner-drivers in Ireland face stringent penalties, which may even include the fitting of automatic speed-limiters to their cars.

Offences such as speeding, not wearing a seat belt and dangerous overtaking, which currently attract penalty points and a fine, may soon attract alternative or additional restrictions on vehicle use. In some cases, the courts will be able to limit drive-time to lessons only, and to impose a driving curfew.

An extreme suggestion, which is likely to cause considerable controversy, is the plan to fit mechanical governors to offenders' vehicles. This idea may, however, involve a rather unwieldy and expensive process compared to that of simple confiscation.

Further legislation will insist upon compulsory professional tuition from an approved instructor as a pre-requisite to taking a driving test. The authorities are convinced that the combination of automatic number plate recognition [ANPR] technology and the new-style 'smart' micro-chip driving licences will ensure the success of these measures. The national network of ANPR cameras is set to be fully operational within weeks.

The response addresses the disproportionate number of injuries and fatalities among rookie drivers and hopes to tackle the apparent ineffectiveness of fines, which are often paid by their parents.

The Authority's Chief Executive, Noel Brett, succinctly sums up the initiative with the words, "The day of giving a car as a rite of passage has got to end."