Repeat traffic offenders could lose their licences once the new Administrative Adjudication Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) system is implemented next year.
Repeat traffic offenders could lose their licences once the new Administrative Adjudication Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) system is implemented next year.
Giuliano Flotman, senior traffic officer in Grahamstown says the Aarto system, also known as the de-merit system, aims to improve the driving habits of all South Africans by penalising repeat offenders with de-merit points.
Once the threshold of 12 points is reached, a driver will have his licence suspended for a period of three months. Points are reduced at the rate of one point for every three months in which no additional demerit points are incurred.
Drivers with suspended licences will not be able to drive for three months and will be taken straight to court if caught. Moreover, drivers who have their licences suspended three times will then have their licences cancelled and they will have to retake the tests in order to obtain a new one.
Officials from the Grahamstown traffic department attended an intensive training course in Port Elizabeth this week. The traffic department said that this is quite a big change for all local authorities. The system is expected to be implemented in April next year and will be used on a national scale.
Flotman explained that the traffic fines will remain and not all offences will carry de-merit points. Traffic offences that put other people at risk will carry de-merit points.
Under the current system, traffic offenses carried different fines within different jurisdictions and needed to be paid in the jurisdiction that the fine was levied. In the future drivers will have the option of paying fines at banks or other local stores in any province.
The traffic department said that there will be extensive monitoring of drivers licences and roadworthy vehicles under the new system.
Information on the new system and how it affects drivers will be communicated to the public before it is implemented. While all traffic officers will be issued with hand-held checking devices, the new system will not automatically exclude bribes being accepted by corrupt officials.
