NEW drivers could get double penalty points for traffic violations, once a new bill designed to upgrade road safety is passed.
Police told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that, according to the proposed bill, new drivers would receive double penalty points for traffic violations.
The ‘special treatment’ would be in effect for two years from the day new drivers received their licence, police said.
The measure aims to send a message to new drivers to be extra careful, as they are more likely to cause accidents through their inexperience.
Police said they had studies that showed that new — usually younger — drivers were more inclined to cause accidents.
Twenty per cent of traffic accident victims were new drivers, police said.
The same bill stipulates that drivers who collect 12 penalty points will automatically lose their licence and have to pass a driving test again in order to be reinstated.
Eighteen-year-old moped owners risk losing their vehicle if they get caught driving illegally, while the legal owners of mopeds up to 100cc could be penalised if their vehicle is found in the possession of an underage driver.
The moped could be seized, police warned, as a way of punishing the owner for failing to keep his vehicle safe.
The bill is currently being processed by the legal service and will soon be forwarded to the Cabinet for approval.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
