PALMA
A total of ten Balearic drivers have lost their licences since the points system came into force in July 2005.
This is a number which is expected to increase during the next few months because 827 drivers on the islands have re-offended and, once their cases have been processed, they could swell the number of drivers without licences.
This was announced yesterday by the Spanish Government's Representative to the Islands, Ramon Socias, during a press conference to explain the accident rate results and announce the meeting yesterday morning of the Regional Council for Road Safety, which is made up of all the administrations concerned with traffic.
In total, 37'000 points have already been withdrawn from drivers on the islands since the new points system was introduced, although Socias said that the awareness of citizens was the first resource in the fight to reduce the accident rate, a battle which I think, at the moment, we are not winning, he admitted.
In Socias's opinion, we can increase the controls and fines, make changes to the penal code which means that certain types of driving offences will be crimes instead of offences, as they are considered now but, in spite of everything, some 47 percent of the victims of fatal accidents on the Balearics in 2006 were not wearing a seat belt or, in the case of motorcyclists, a crash helmet.
This is a number which increased to 49 percent at the beginning of the year, it was revealed..
With regard to this, Socias said he wanted to try to take awareness campaigns into the schools to make sure that children know the dangers of driving without using the necessary security measures and, at the same time, to continue punishing driving offences because, in spite of the radar traps, people are still speeding, he said.
At the same time, Socias mentioned illegal road racing which had been reported to his office by various Mayors in the Serra de Tramuntana mountain area, a problem which he said he knew well as he had once been the Mayor of Soller, one of the towns affected.
He explained that the Guardia Civil have been carrying out an observation campaign in this area since the beginning of September to the present date.