No plan to crack down on L-drivers

GARDAÍ HAVE no plans to specifically target unaccompanied learner drivers from next Tuesday.

From midnight on July 1st, the loophole allowing second learner permit holders to drive unaccompanied will close.

From that date, all learner drivers must be accompanied by a driver holding a full-licence for at least two years.

Head of the Garda Traffic Corps assistant commissioner, Eddie Rock, said last night the law on unaccompanied driving “will be enforced in an appropriate and proportional manner”.

No specific checkpoints to target unaccompanied learner motorists were planned, he said. Last October, confusion surrounded the enforcement of what has been to date a lightly policed law.

The proposal to close the loophole caused a furore when the Minister of Transport, Noel Dempsey, and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) sought to introduce it within days.

A public outcry saw the deadline extended until July 1st this year to allow 122,000 holders of a second provisional licence apply for a test.

As of the end of May, over 117,000 drivers held a second learner permit, according to the RSA.

The vast majority of these licences were for cars.

Drivers on second learner permits will be legally required to change their travel habits from next week when the loophole closes.

Noel Brett, head of the RSA, said 48,000 learner drivers a month are being tested.

“Of the 122,000 second provisional licence holders as of last October, over 100,000 will have been tested by the end of June,” he said.

He also said that second learner permit holders who have applied for a test have been offered a test date.

The pass rate is 59 per cent and the average waiting time for a test is eight weeks.

“Right now there is no compulsion to pass the test, but we will review it at the end of the year and will talk to the minister about any additional measures required,” he said.