Thousands of SA drivers within one offence of losing their licence as demerit points pile up

Thousands of drivers are within one low-level rule breach of losing their licences – and this is their simple mistake.

More than 7000 drivers and motorcyclists are close to losing their licences – and ignorance about how easily they can be caught breaking the road rules is to blame.

RAA road safety expert Charles Mountain said new technology and techniques were causing many more people to be caught for three demerit-point offences, bringing them closer to the licence-cancelling 12 demerit points.

When the Transport Department started collecting the expiation data in 2014, 5159 people were found to be within three points, or one offence, of losing their licence.

That had now risen to 7059 drivers and motorcyclists.

Mr Mountain said motorists and riders needed to be aware of how easily they could be caught offending, and adjust their behaviour.

“We have seen things like more point-to-point cameras and fixed cameras and more red-light cameras, so the level of detection has increased,” Mr Mountain said.

The State Budget included cash for the installation of additional traffic cameras, expected to generate more than $15.6m in revenue in the first year of operation.

Those cameras would make it easier to detect offences such as using a mobile phone while driving, which attracted three demerit points.

New technology allows fixed traffic cameras to pick up offences like using a mobile phone while driving. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Mr Mountain said there had also been a change to the number of three demerit-point offences.

“One demerit point offences are now only a few, like towing a vehicle without effective lights or using headlights when not permitted,” he said.

“Most of the common offences, like running a red light and speeding, now start at three (demerit points), and go up.

“And when you get to the more high-range speeding, you get to seven and nine lost points very quickly, so that explains the people getting closer to 12.”

He said the most common three demerit point offence was speeding at between 10km/h and 19km/h over the speed limit, which caught people who were “doing a bit over 60km/h in a 50km/h zone”.

The increase in number of people on the brink of losing their licences had also been caused by more people being on the road, especially as more older South Australians were keeping their licences for longer, he said.

In 2014, there were 1,192,189 licenced drivers in SA. There are now 1,278,436.

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