No drivers are banned in first year of 'points based' penalty system

Paul Rees 31 May 2017

accident125 During the first year of the new points system for driving offences, not a single driver has lost his license.

Road deaths rose by 8%, a slight increase in the last 12 months, with 462 people losing their lives as a result of road traffic accidents, an increase of 35 victims.

The road traffic accident rate was down, according to the National Road Safety Authority, with 124,035 accidents between June 1st, 2016 and May 27th, 2017, down 697 from the previous 12 months.

The authority said the first year of the new points based system for traffic offences had been positive, as "the objectives are being achieved and that drivers are internalising and adopting driving behavior in accordance with road rules and road signs."

But not a single driver was taken off the road in the first year of the new 'points' system, despite 19 cases brought against drivers to have their licenses removed.

One driver facing a two year ban went to court and escaped the penalty. According to the National Road Safety Authority, 27 drivers had lost all 12 of their starter points and 19 were subject to legal proceedings to have their license taken away. But every case was contested and no bans have been enforced.

Some small cheer that 12 drivers have been told they must go on a road safety training course, but as they have 180 days in which to attend, only four so far have turned up.

Comments

0 #6 Ed 2017-06-03 09:10

Quoting valery:

thank you Ed for your comments, my uk licence was due to be renewed in January, so both husband and I applied to renew at Faro, forms filled in, photos taken, fees paid, in February we needed to renew "provisional" licences as the piece of paper had expired, was told licences "would be soon" that week I received a letter saying my licence was ready for collection,Wow says I, then I was phoned by Faro office to say they had made a mistake, not ready. then 2 weeks later my licence was sent, still waiting for husbands licence, both applied on the same day, strange, still waiting, licences applied for In December, so on your reckoning it will arrive soon.however his paper one expires in September, we shall see,

It seems to be busienss as ususal then. How this simple proceedure still takes over 6 months is baffling when the new technology is meant to make things quicker.

0 #5 valery 2017-06-03 08:44

thank you Ed for your comments, my uk licence was due to be renewed in January, so both husband and I applied to renew at Faro, forms filled in, photos taken, fees paid, in February we needed to renew "provisional" licences as the piece of paper had expired, was told licences "would be soon" that week I received a letter saying my licence was ready for collection,Wow says I, then I was phoned by Faro office to say they had made a mistake, not ready. then 2 weeks later my licence was sent, still waiting for husbands licence, both applied on the same day, strange, still waiting, licences applied for In December, so on your reckoning it will arrive soon.however his paper one expires in September, we shall see,

0 #4 Ed 2017-06-02 08:39

Quoting valery:

interesting article, sad for those you have lost friends and relatives to idiotic drivers, however, it would be very nice if our driving licences were to arrive,how long does this process take.or more to the point how long is the piece of paper going to last?.

"In March 2014, Portugal's driving licence issuing authority started using the new 'Sistema de Obtenção Fiável de Imagem e Assinatura,' roughly translated as the Reliable System for Obtaining Images and Signatures, or SOFIA for short.

This technology clearly failed to produce the intended results and drivers started to experience processing delays that even for Portugal were excessive. By April 2015 the backlog admitted to by Secretary of State Sergio Monteiro was 280,000."

This is a shameful episode in Portugal's administrative history.

Since then the government has been told eveything is working well and the backlog is being attended to. 'Normal' processing times can only be guessed at but I would reckon on at least six months.

As for when renewal is due, this depends on you age.
Pretty sure renewal time is at 50, 60, 65, and 70. After 70 renewals are every two years.

+1 #3 valery 2017-06-02 08:12

interesting article, sad for those you have lost friends and relatives to idiotic drivers, however, it would be very nice if our driving licences were to arrive,how long does this process take.or more to the point how long is the piece of paper going to last?.

0 #2 Malcolm.H 2017-06-01 09:26

This reminds us of the early days of road speed cameras 10 years or so ago around the two main cities. The cameras dutifully logging tens of thousands of Porto and Lisbon speeders. The authorities, with no experience even then of treating everyone equally under the law, at a total loss what to do next. So losing all the speeders in "Portuguese Fudges".
One being that the identification of the drivers was passed to another body that, 'surprisingly (!)',was not allowed to have this information due to data protection. Something a judge could have remedied in minutes, but usefully for the elite, none were ever asked to do so.

0 #1 Daphne 2017-06-01 08:06

There is a curious website run by the Civil Protection guys which maps some (?) of the fires nationwide being notified to the Bombeiros. Curious in that the totals do not match the tens of thousands of rural fires that happen annually. So, if not attempting to be accurate, what is this websites purpose ?
http://www.prociv.pt/pt-pt/SITUACAOOPERACIONAL/Paginas/default.aspx

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