rague, Jan 28 (CTK) – Czech drivers are more disciplined thanks to the penalty point system that was introduced in the country ten years ago, and 67,575 people lost their driving licence because they received the maximum number of 12 penal points, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes yesterday.
Only 4317 of those who lost their driving licence after receiving 12 penalty points were women, the Transport Ministry data show.
In total, over half a million people were stripped of their driving licences, the paper writes.
The ban on driving was imposed on 435,278 people in court or administrative proceedings due to their serious traffic offences. Again, only a small part of them, 32,770, were women.
Women are clearly more disciplined or more careful on roads than men, MfD writes.
At present, 39,500 people are currently banned from driving because they received 12 penal points. This most often happens to men at the age of 29. The oldest person who received 12 points was aged 91 and the youngest one was 17 years old.
Unlike many other things in the country, the penal point system for drivers has been operating ten years without strong criticism and without big changes, MfD writes.
The system was revised twice. Since 2008, three penal points may be deleted to drivers who undergo a special driving course. About 18,000 have used this opportunity so far and most of them had nine points at the time. In 2011, it was introduced that penal points are not given to drivers who did not turn their headlights on in the daytime and those who travelled at only slightly higher speeds over the limit.
Transport Minister Dan Tok wants to make changes to the penal point system. He would like to introduce even stricter punishments for the most serious offences – driving through a railroad crossing despite the flashing red light and driving more than 50 km/h over the speed limit, the paper writes.
Tok said the system clearly made people drive more responsibly, but not all has been functioning well.
He said drivers should have more information on the fines imposed for the violations of individual rules and on the number of penal points they received.
Some drivers received 12 points without being aware of it, the paper writes.
Drivers should be warned that their number of points reached six or nine.
Another change that is being considered is the introduction of a stricter regime for young people.
“I would welcome the introduction of a test regime for younger drivers,” Jan Behavy, a driving school owner, told the paper.
Behavy said young people might get the driving licence for a test period of two or three years. They might also face stricter punishments than experienced drivers for some serious violations of the rules of the road, he said.
Petr Kukral, head of the road inspection authority in Strakonice, south Bohemia, said drivers should get penal points for causing a road accident. “I believe that the new bill would remove this flaw in the system,” he said.
“The penal point system worked brilliantly in the very beginning, for the first six months. Then the drivers were gradually getting used to it and now they are not as careful as before,” Kukral told MfD.
