Little-known ways you can lose your licence on NSW roads
WE ALL know that drink driving or using your phone while driving are quick ways to lose your licence. But some lesser-known offences could also see you banned.
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THE harsh penalties for offences like drink driving and using your phone behind the wheel are constantly drilled into us, but we don’t hear about the other things that could see you lose your licence a lot faster.
In NSW, unrestricted Australian licence holders can accumulate 13 demerit points over a three-year period before they have their licence suspended.
Speeding, drink driving and using your phone are some of the infringements we hear about most often and carry tough fines and demerits.
Earlier this month the state increased the penalty for drivers caught using their phones as part of a crackdown on dangerous drivers.
Any drivers or riders caught using a mobile phone will cop five demerit points, increasing from the previous penalty of four demerit points.
Pairing this with a $337 fine makes NSW the strictest state in the country for the offence.
Speeding drivers risk getting between one and six demerit points depending on how much they were exceeding the speed limit and drink drivers could be faced with an immediate licence suspension.
However, there are many other offences we don’t often hear about that could see your demerit points rack up very quickly and your licence suspended.
One of the things NSW drivers get the most demerit points for is using a vehicle fitted with a “speed evasion article”.
This refers to a device that is designed to detect or interfere with speed measuring devices.
If a motorist is caught with a vehicle fitted with one of these devices they will get nine demerit points and a $1757 fine.
Motorbike riders will be slapped with nine demerit points if they are caught without a helmet along with two or more passengers also without helmets.
Fines for this offence range from $1085 to $1757 depending on how many unhelmeted passengers being carried.
Another offence that will make a big impact on your demerit point limit is you and your passengers not using your seatbelts.
Driving with two or more unrestrained passengers will cost you six demerit points.
Two unrestrained passengers will also see a driver fined $673 on top of the points, three passengers will be a $1065 fine and four or more unrestrained passengers will be a $1422 fine.
L-platers and P-platers have a significantly lower demerit point threshold than full-licence holders.
Learner drivers and P1 licence holders only have a limit of four demerit points and P2 licence holders have seven demerit points.
This means that it is a lot more likely they will have their licence taken away if they are caught doing the wrong thing.
It is a seven point penalty and a $561 fine for any red P-plater under 25 caught driving with more than one passenger under 21 years of age between 11pm and 5am.
There are restrictions on the type of cars P1 and P2 licence holders can drive and failing to comply with these can result in a loss of licence.
And if a provisional driver is caught driving a banned high-powered vehicle, they will cop seven demerit points and a $561 fine.
Originally published as Little-known ways you can lose your licence on NSW roads