More than 2,100 driving tests abandoned due to bad weather or drivers’ vehicles breaking down

More than 2,100 driving tests had to be abandoned last year due to bad weather or drivers’ vehicles breaking down mid-test.

That is according to the 2020 Road Safety Authority (RSA) annual report which shows the percentage rate of tests abandoned due to bad weather or vehicles breaking down mid-test more than doubled last year on 2019.

The figures show 2,163 were abandoned last year. This is an increase of 15 per cent, or 277, on the 1,886 abandoned for 2019.

The increase in abandoned tests came despite the number offered by the driving-test service more than halving – from 221,038 in 2019 to 102,673 last year, due to the pandemic.

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The reportshows that a further 4,005 tests were not conducted in 2020 due to an unroadworthy vehicle or driver not having insurance, tax, licence or “other”.

The report shows that unroadworthy vehicles accounted for 39 per cent of non-conducted tests. This was followed by “other” at 14 per cent, no insurance at 12 per cent, no tax at 10 per cent and no licence at 9 per cent.

The national pass rate was 52 per cent for 2020 though there was a huge disparity between the highest and lowest pass rates at the RSA’s network.

The centre with the highest pass rate was Clifden, Co Galway, at 71.4 per cent. And the lowest, at 33.3 per cent, was at Kilkenny (O'Loughlin Gaels test centre).

Finglas failure rate

Pass rates at the two test centres are to a large extent outliers – there are only two other centres with a pass rate higher than 65 per cent – Cavan at 68.4 per cent and Monaghan at 66.1 per cent.

Kilkenny had by far the lowest pass rate countrywide. Finglas followed at 42.6 per cent, with Shannon and Churchtown at 44 per cent.

As to why candidates failed, the most common reason was “positioning” at 36 per cent, followed by vehicle control at 19 per cent, observation at 12 per cent and react/anticipate and rules/checks at 8 per cent.

The country’s driving-test service suspended operations on March 13th, 2020, due to the pandemic. It resumed for trucks and buses on June 29th and for cars in July 2020.

The RSA is now handling a large backlog in tests.