Crackdown on Prov License Drivers - Will it stick?

Banning all provisional licence holders from driving on their own is not the answer.

Why not ensure that all learners have had at least 30 official driving lessons to ensure they have had plenty of practice and are confident behind the wheel. I know people who have had 4 or 5 lessons and think they are great drivers. Good driving comes from experience which cannot be gained after a couple of lessons.

We need to change drivers attitudes. We need them to be aware that everytime they go out on the road that they are in charge of a potentially LETHAL WEAPON and that driving is DANGEROUS. In recent weeks, there was a comment in a daily newspaper from a relative of a RTA victim. They said the victim would not have driven on the road that day, if the government had said it was dangerous - therefore, it was the governments fault. While I have every sympathy for the family, surely someone who has their own car on the road, does not need to be told that driving or speeding in adverse weather conditions is DANGEROUS. Do we really need someone to tell us when driving conditions are unsafe. If you are in charge of a car you should be able to use some cop on.

In recent weeks, I have had people beeping at me and flashing their headlights because I would not overtake a tractor on a bend, or while a car was approaching. Ditto, when I would not drive into a yellow box on a junction.

Recently, I had to pull over on a dual carriage way during torrential rain because I could not see on front of me. Yet, hundreds of cars continued to speed by me at 100km per hour or more. Why??? They couldn't see what was on front of them......

We also need to make people aware of traffic lights!!! RED means stop!!!!! The amount of times, while as a driver and as a pedestrian, that cars just keep going through red lights...........why????

Also, all cars should be fitted with indicators (oh sorry, my mistake they are!) - Perhaps people should be given lessons on how to turn them on and use them!!!!
 
Why not ensure that all learners have had at least 30 official driving lessons to ensure they have had plenty of practice and are confident behind the wheel.
Whats an official driving lesson?

Anyone can instruct - you, me, the cats mother.
 
Hi !
The timing for the announcement for new driving regulation would not have been more perfect than this bank holiday weekend. Mr Bertie Ahern took huge salary increment and has even turned down request by members not to take the rise. His pay rise makes him highest earning head of state in the entire EU PM/ president/Chancellor.
This would have embarked debate about him in weekends,raising concern for the quality of service given to the public, and forth coming budget.
Now public attention is hijacked to the issue of Driving regulation, there will be a debate in every house, confusion on how it will be implemented and fear in going on roads even for daily bread.
There is NO work done on reducing the Queue of getting the exam date. People who fail the test are left with no other alternative but to defy the law.
Also Mr Neol Dempsy proved his in-competence in Shannon case, Driving regulation and situation of Dart in Dublin ... People have made a wrong choice, are now paying the price, perhaps there will be more in coming times.
 
prov drivers cause 10% of accidents,remainder of accidents caused by who?
 
prov drivers cause 10% of accidents,remainder of accidents caused by who?
Exactly! - You're either a dangerous driver or not. If you are a dangerous driver and have a prov license, and you then get a full license, you do not magically become a safe driver.
Bad drivers are causing deaths, not prov drivers. - Not to mention terrible road signing! :mad:
 
another point that needs to be nailed is this constant comparisons to stats in other countries ,road conditions , driving habits,testing standards are not universal. this current idea to nail every driver who breaks the law with no common sense approach or leniency smacks of a holier than thou attitude. every day in every court house in the country judges use their common sense when dispensing the law. in new york state when someone is convicted for drink driving they loose their licence but are given a 6 to 6 licence which allows them to drive to and from work mon to fri no weekends. but to think that the untested gay byrne would ever adopt a policy like this would be thinking the impossible. ther are no second chances if you break the driving laws in ireland anymore.
 
The second provisional licence holder now having to be accompanied is unenforcable IMO - anyone who currently holds a first or third and subsequent licence has a notation printed on it - 999 - which means that they must be accompanied by a certified driver - the second provisional printed up until 30th will not have this notation - therefore unless the MTO are to issue new licences to all of these drivers it will not be a condition of their licence no matter who says what. I'm sure the minister wlll say this law is overrulling these notations but if a 2nd prov licence holder was brought up on charges on exisiting second licence I'd imagine it would be difficult to make them stick. Any solicitors on here who would know the law in relation to this?
 
I am a provisional licened driver. im 18 and iv been driving for the last 11 months.
I have my own car which i use to drive to school, work, doctor appointments, orthadontist appointments, to get the shopping... so on and so forth. This crack down will come easy to people who live in cities and built up areas, but i live in the middle of no where with no public transport! How am i suppose to do these things! It would make sense to bring this law into action with people who are currrently applying for there provisional licence, rather than take the power to drive unaccompanied to people who have been doing so for the past couple of years because tthe guards didnt enforce it! i have a neighbour who is a single mother who has a provisional licence and has to drop her son to day care and then travel 20 mins to work. Should she be fined 1000 euro? She is already just scraping together what little money she has! Will she have to give up her job! The people who decided to bring this back so sudden arn't thinking about the West of Ireland and shoud improve the patethic public transport system and the waiting time to get your driving test substantially before bringing this in!!! I am not giving up my partime job because my parents have a life and jobs that they cant sit in my car when i drive to work and stay in my car for 9 hours. From tuesday onwards a big percentage of the 400,000 provisional licence holders are going to carry on driving and protest against the system and if we dont pay the fines are the government going to fill our already full prisons with innocent people? Thank you for reading
 

I totally agree with you! Plus i thought the gornment were trying to decrease the number of deaths of pedestrians on the road! you cant send a 10 year old girl off down a mountain road to school. in todays society she could be knocked down by a boy racer or even abducted!!! its ridiculous
 
Gay Byrne should resign immediately. He said before that if he did not see things being done then he would go. Ah hold on wait a minute -the salary is nice -think I'll stay. This is a joke!
 
Wouldn't the government be far better off regulating the driving instuctors so that everyone is taught right in the first place!!
Secondly have in place a short waiting period for the test!
But no typical Irish solution to an Irish problem,- just take the cars off the road
 
This clampdown may also encourage Irish people to adopt a healthier attitude towards carpooling , works very well in other countries outside of the one person one car mentatlity we have here.
 
Below is a sample of learner driver restrictions in others countries:

SWEDEN: drivers on a provisional licence must be supervised
ITALY: instructors must have held a licence for 10 years
SPAIN: private instruction completely banned
FRANCE: first-time drivers limited to 90km/h
NORTHERN IRELAND: Newly-qualified drivers must display an R sign and limited to 75km/h
GERMANY: provisional issued when test passed but if in an accident during first two years then test must be retaken
NEW ZEALAND: learners banned from driving between 10pm and 5am

These are just a few of the restrictions - also, depending on the country, you must do a first aid course,learn to drive on a motorway, learn to drive at night - some also have a zero tolerance attitude to drink driving.

We have been far too lax in this country in our legislation and attitude towards driving for years. Suddenly,when someone puts the boot down (sic) we start panicking.

The issue of young people under the age of say 25 should have been tackled years ago when the car scrappage scheme ran for 3 or 4 years and the Celtic Tiger syndrome kicked in on the roads.

From Monday night next we will still not be moving up the road safety league table, judging by some of the restictions above - all we are doing here in Ireland is saying that provisonal holders must be accompanied by a licence holder for the second licence.

We do not have first aid tests, night driving tests etc. We are a First World country with Second World driving standards with little or no enforcement of these standards.

I will feel safer on Tuesday morning.
 
I have to ask the question why does it appear that if a provisional driver is accompanied by a person who holds a full licence, suddenly they are a safer driver? Sorry but every day I have close shaves with qualified drivers, in their 30s, 40s and upwards, racing thro amber lights, cutting in dangerously from other lanes without indicating, etc. etc. If those same folk are directing learner drivers into their own bad habits, how can that lead to safer learning for young drivers? Also I know of teachers who are not at all teaching safe driving to learners so again, how does a learner get the correct teaching? Some of the schools I learnt in had awful teachers who preferred looking out the window at passerbys (especially females!) than watching and correcting my driving! Until the system is near perfect for people to learn in, then by all means bring in rigid rules but until then, it looks to me that in over 30+ years, things have remained terrible for learners to learn correctly, safely, etc. Can the current system cope with hundreds of thousands of provisional drivers applying to do the test? I bet not seeing it can't cope with lower numbers before that!!! What about a curfew on young drivers in the late hours when most of the terrible smashes occur?
 
Newly-qualified drivers must display an R sign and limited to 75km/h

So we are copying our closest neighbour as usual ?

NEW ZEALAND: learners banned from driving between 10pm and 5am

What about a curfew on young drivers in the late hours when most of the terrible smashes occur?

I have driven to Dublin airport between these hours. In my opinion this is the safest time to be driving as theres almost noone else on the roads. Compare this to rush hour in Dublin where theres far more innocent people around to be affected by dangerous driving. I dont see the point.

Also what if someone had a night shift job (a separate issue I know which will have people screaming that the learner shouldnt be on the roads) during hours when our inadequate public transport isnt running ? My point is if government is to be selective about the hours they should specify rush hour when theres more people around to be affected by pile ups and dangerous driving.
 
Tinkerbell

Part of the reason we have 400k on provisionals is that a lot of them have failed or neglected to demonstrate that they are competent to drive.

When cars first came out, you had to have a man walk in front of the car with a flag ! Now you just fill out a form, pay your money and drive off at 100mph!

If a flight attendant went through the emergency routine and said ' Oh by the way, the pilot is on a six month provisional and has not yet applied for his test' what would your reaction be ? Same as mine no doubt.

It is increasingly said on this site and others, that we have got too far ahead of ourselves with road manners and a carefree attitude to most things.
 
Shouldn't the question be- why do many people need to drive and drive with a provisional licence.
The simple matter of the fact is that people have no choice as public transport doesn't exist in this country.(outside Dublin)

sort out public transport first not penalise people becuase they need a form of transport to get to work.
 
Original Question:
Crackdown on Prov License Drivers - Will it stick?

Answer: No, (and if it does Ireland has just got 400,000 + new criminals/lawbreakers)