Rehab for bad drivers

PROPOSAL: SERIAL TRAFFIC LAW OFFENDERS TO GO FOR ‘REHABILITATION’

Programme will be available to errant motorists who wish to reduce their demerit points.

The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act’s draft regulations have proposed that serial traffic law offenders go for “driver rehabilitation programmes” before they are allowed back on the road.

This despite the implementing agency, the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA), being aware of only one organisation which offers driver rehabilitation programmes in the country.

This could be an indication of how scantly prepared the traffic authorities are regarding the administration of the Aarto Act, expected to be in force as early as next June.

According to the draft regulations, the first road to redemption for errant drivers is via the driver rehabilitation programme, which will pave the way to a fresh application for a drivers’ licence and tested all over again.

If the draft regulations, gazetted last Friday and currently out for public consultations, are adopted in their current form, “habitual infringers” whose licences have been cancelled will be subjected to the “compulsory” rehabilitation programme, before they can reapply for their licences after the lapse of the cancellation period.

The programme will also be made available, voluntarily, to traffic law infringers who wish to reduce their demerit points, to avoid depleting their points and losing their licences.

“… a suspension is revoked if the number of demerit reduced based on successful completion of the rehabilitation programme is equal or below the threshold

Rehabilitation aims to restore drivers’ good behaviour