High proportion of learner drivers involved in fatal road collisions were unaccompanied
Two-thirds of those disqualified did not hand back their permits
THE vast majority of learner drivers involved in fatal collisions since 2017 were unaccompanied at the time, new figures reveal.
Data also shows that more than 1,100 learner drivers have been disqualified since 2018, but only a third of them surrendered their learner permits.
It is against the law for people on learner permits to drive unaccompanied. Failing to surrender your permit after being disqualified is also an offence, punishable by a fine.
Learner drivers can lose their licence after accumulating seven penalty points, compared with 12 for those who have passed the driving test.
According to information disclosed by Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, out of 40 fatal collisions since the beginning of 2017 involving at least one learner driver or motorcyclist, 33 involved an unaccompanied driver. Forty-two people died in those collisions.
The figures were provided to Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy in response to parliamentary questions.
While the situation has improved since 2017, when there were 17 fatalities, compared with 10 last year, Ms Murphy said the law requiring learner drivers to be accompanied needed to be respected in order to save lives.
“We have got to allow people to learn how to drive. But we have got to keep those drivers and everyone else safe at the same time. Those conditions are there to ensure people are safe on the roads,” she said.
Ms Murphy also said the failure of learner drivers to surrender their permits showed there was “a failure in the system”, and a practical response was needed to ensure licences were handed over.
The data showed that of 1,134 learner drivers disqualified since the beginning of 2018, just 386 had surrendered their permit.
Reacting to the figures, road safety group Parc said it feared some disqualified drivers could be using the permits to continue driving.
It said there were concerns they could remain undetected as the relevant disqualification information is not accessible on handheld devices used by gardaí during roadside enforcement.
“If they hold on to their licence and they are stopped, even though gardaí have a new mobility device app, they would not be able to tell the status of that driver’s licence or permit,” said Parc spokesperson Susan Gray.
“This is because the mobility device currently cannot access driver files held by the Department of Transport, which would inform the gardaí at the roadside if the driver was disqualified.”
In response to one of the parliamentary questions, Mr Ryan said his department was working with An Garda Síochána to enable its handheld devices to access real-time driver and vehicle data.
He said gardaí had requested that key additional driver and vehicle data not currently available to them be made available on the handheld devices.
“In addition, where no driver’s licence is produced at the roadside, it is proposed that An Garda Síochána will have the ability to search the driver record with additional search criteria such as name, address, date of birth etc,” the minister said.