Points On Your Licence?

[Timbo]

According to the BBC there is someone still allowed to drive in Norfolk with 51points on their licence! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39053658

 

[Hylander]

Bet their insurance is sky high.

[Bound2Please]

Strangely only yesterday I was wondering how all these people speeding through average speed cameras keep their licenses. They seem to take no notice of them on the A12, or is it they dont know what average speed means, as many brake hard on seeing camera over the road only to speed back up again after passing it. Or is it they claim hardship when they get court???????

Charlie

[Poppy]

19 minutes ago, Bound2Please said:

Strangely only yesterday I was wondering how all these people speeding through average speed cameras keep their licenses. They seem to take no notice of them on the A12, or is it they dont know what average speed means, as many brake hard on seeing camera over the road only to speed back up again after passing it. Or is it they claim hardship when they get court???????

Charlie

Happens everywhere Charlie. 

Many people are completely ignorant of the meaning of 'average'.

I once had a National sales manager who announced to the entire UK sales team that 'I will not be satisfied until everybody in this room is performing above the company average'.

A day or two later, we all received an email correcting his statement in which he said " of course, I should have said 'the company median '"    He still didn't get it ........ 

[MauriceMynah]

After my mother died I moved in with my sister. It was ages before I remembered to change the address on my license, but apparently that's a "points offence" and this puts me back on my soap box again.

For as long as inappropriate penalties are issued or inappropriate rules are introduced, the law will be considered "a ass".

Take the MOT for example. The original purpose of this test was to ensure the road-worthiness of your car. a defective exhaust system does not make your car dangerous, nor does it make your driving dangerous, but it is both an MOT failure and/or can get points put on your license. I'm not saying that the fellow who has xteen points on his license has not been doing things dangerously, but equally we cannot hand on heart say that for all of those points, he has. 

Was the beak soft, or was he sensible?

[kfurbank]

49 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

Take the MOT for example. The original purpose of this test was to ensure the road-worthiness of your car. a defective exhaust system does not make your car dangerous, nor does it make your driving dangerous, but it is both an MOT failure and/or can get points put on your license. I'm not saying that the fellow who has xteen points on his license has not been doing things dangerously, but equally we cannot hand on heart say that for all of those points, he has. 

Was the beak soft, or was he sensible?

If the back box of your exhaust falls off due to it's corroded mounts and goes bouncing along the road into the path of the car following you at 65mph, then I would argue that is dangerous, or if it's blowing somewhere near the exhaust manifold and poisonous fumes are entering the passenger compartment then again it is dangerous.

With regards to change of address, consider the following, a driver leaves a pub three times over the limit and on his way home clips a cyclist and knocks a child off a bike. There are witnesses and they take the drivers registration number. The police go round to the house to be told "sorry mate he doesn't live here, he moved out 6 months ago". By the time the police track the driver down two days later he has sobered up and claims not to have seen or realised he clipped a cyclist. The police charge him with negligent or careless driving when he should have had the book thrown at him.

[MauriceMynah]

Sorry Keith but no! The cars registered address will be where the police go, nothing to do with the driver. A defective exhaust system needn't be dangerous It might be, but not necessarily so. An electric car making little or no noise is far more of a danger !!!

[kfurbank]

Maurice, So if the car was hired and the police contacted the hire company who supplied the details from the driving license?

[MauriceMynah]

So if I had a small hole in the exhaust and already had points on my license, You'd support my loosing my license?

one can always find examples where something can prove to be dangerous and one can always find situations where something can be found to justify a legal point. There are those who tell storys about people who would have been killed if they'd been wearing seatbelts/crash helmets, but these are irrelevant to the mainstream.

My point is simple. If someone does something that is dangerous it should be dealt with as such. If it's a matter of paperwork then again it should be dealt with as such.

[kfurbank]

13 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

So if I had a small hole in the exhaust and already had points on my license, You'd support my loosing my license?

 

Not sure I follow? The exhaust would either be a MOT failure, or not, but a small hole in the exhaust wouldn't result in points on your license unless you decided to ignore a MOT failure and carry on driving it on the road.

Regarding the matter of paperwork, the address is on the license for a reason, whether you agree or not, or can see the benefit of it or not. Unless a means of punishment exists for people who don't update their address, then many more people wouldn't bother. At a roadside check, your license if you have it on you, is one of the first things the police may want to record and if it has the wrong address on it, this may delay further enquiries. Off course you could always point out that you haven't got around to changing your address yet, but that assumes you remember and haven't a reason for wanting to delay further enquiries.

As a matter of interest, if points on your license is excessive for not updating your address, what do you consider appropriate? A £10 fine? a £100 fine? because it could be argued that a monetary fine is unfair based upon the ability to pay such a fine. At least points on a license is a leveller?

[Vaughan]

2 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

An electric car making little or no noise is far more of a danger !!!

I certainly agree with you there! These hybrid cars, creeping out of parking spaces in supermarket car parks, are bloody dangerous. You just can't hear them coming.

They need reversing beepers.

[Regulo]

All new electric or electric/Hybrid vehicles must be supplied with AVAS (Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System). Which should alert any pedestrians to the proximity of an electric vehicle. I'm not certain, but I think it's been law now for about 5 years.

[Polly]

I am partially deaf, I don't hear cycles approaching because the sound is out of my hearing range, cars will be a real issue.

[johnb]

MOT? Driving Licence?

I thought they went out with the paper tax disc?

[MauriceMynah]

Sorry Keith, the point I was trying to make was that to remove someone's driving license is a hefty penalty for a minor offence. to use points to remove dangerous drivers is fine and I fully support that, but take a person living out in the country and stop him driving would be unreasonable (in my opinion) for what is after all, probably a genuine oversight. Let the punishment fit the crime. 

Going back to the exhaust and the hole in it, at no time did I suggest that the car HAD failed an MOT but that such a hole would fail one. It is still points on the license even with a valid MOT, yet of no danger. 

[BrundallNavy]

I believe the most points held by a motorist currently driving is 62.  Must have had a good solicitor.

Doug.

[Regulo]

Look East covered this tonight, and had on a solicitor who stated he'd got a client with 36 points who had been allowed to keep his licence. The points had been accrued due to the man having forgotten to inform the DVLA of a change of address. They'd sent six requests for "named driver" (for what wasn't specified) to his previous address, resulting in six penalty points each for non-compliance. Moral of this: tell the DVLA when you move!!

[Poppy]

13 hours ago, johnb said:

MOT? Driving Licence?

I thought they went out with the paper tax disc?

Insurance too.