EU says: driving unaccompanied is illegal

Anan1

Stark wrote:

The thing is if they make driving alone on a second provisional illegal then the gardaí won't need to pull someone over to confirm if they're driving illegally. They can just look to see if the car has L-plates and look to see if the person driving is on their own.

Of course the person driving could be a fully licenced driver who couldn't be bothered taking down their L-plates after their offspring was in the car, but that's not something they should be doing. It basically defeats the purpose of the L-plate system which says "This car is being operated by a learner driver, therefore is a potential hazard, show caution/bully as appropriate".

As far as I can see, learners tend to drive with L-plates until they themselves feel comfortable with their driving. They then either do the test or ditch the plates - either way, no L-plates!

Stark

How do you know they're learners if they have no L-plates?

Anan1

Stark wrote:

How do you know they're learners if they have no L-plates?

That's my point.;)

dermot_sheehan

Vegeta wrote:

to fine the country they need proof people are driving alone on provisionals
to get proof Irish Gardai have to catch people and that's where i see the problem

You're right if caught we'll probably end up paying the fines

They don't need proof Irish drivers are driving unaccompanied, all they can do is sit back in their offices in Brussels and have a look at the Irish Road Traffic legislation which allows this on a second provisional. They in response to a complaint from Prontias DeRossa MEP (Drivers/Voters in Dublin take note of this) had a look and felt that it was in contravention of the EU Driving Licences Directive. If they don't get a satisfactory response from Ireland, they take us to the European Court of Justice. If we fail to change the law after the ECJ rules against us, the state gets fined.

dermot_sheehan

Stark wrote:

How do you know they're learners if they have no L-plates?

L-plates don't mean much. I have a full licence and drive around a car with L-plates on since one of the other people who routinely drive the car has a provisional and its too much bother to keep putting them up/taking them down.

If they really want to enforce this, they should simply automatically issue a 6 months ban to anyone caught driving unaccompanied. This along with random checks (at Tax disc checkpoints), along with rigourus enforcement of existing Road Traffic laws, would result in people eventually getting caught.


If anyone wants to act the muppet and drive while banned, they should be jailed. Simple.

optiplexgx270

Meh without L plates im just the next car and no one is any the wiser so not bothered if it was law now or in the future.

Alun

Right, so now we have the ludicrous situation where we have people who aren't learning who do display L plates, and those that actually are learning who don't display L plates. That's really logical