Speeding tops list of offences under Demerit Points System

SPEEDING continues to top the list of the offences under the Demerit Points System (DPS), the Ministry of Communications (MinCom) Permanent Secretary said yesterday.

At the mid-trial review for the first phase of the DPS, Dato Paduka Hj Alaihuddin POKDG Hj Mohd Taha, who is also the Chairman of the National Road Safety Council, said that as much as 288 speeding cases were recorded out of over 585 cases.

"Such driving habits are very worrying and need to be curbed for the sake of the main objective, which is to create good and responsible drivers," he said in his speech.

"From the figures given, I understand as much as 39 notices have been given out including one notice of a three-month licence suspension," he said. He added that over 75 cases were also recorded for traffic-light offences.

All the offences, he said, were recorded under the eight categories of points accrual.

In the DPS handbook, the points categories are listed as, a minimum of three and a maximum of 24 points depending on the severity of the offence.

In his speech, he also mentioned the issues that the DPS currently faces. "The main ones are the process of points accrual whether manually or automatically, various methods of enforcement, the appropriate weight of points given according to an offence and the total accrual of points," he said.

He then elaborated on the possibility of adding more important modules into the existing Land Transport System (SPD), which is a record-keeping database that works collaboratively with the DPS.

"This would include an appeal system, notification module, reporting management and integration modules," he said.

He pointed out that such addition will improve the DPS processes and enable a smooth transition of the system into the second phase.

In that period, he said that installation of hardware such as unmanned speed cameras and traffic light cameras will apply.

In a June report at the Brunei Shell Joint Venture Road Safety 2012 event at Pusat Insani, Seria, Dato Paduka Hj Alaihuddin mentioned that 90 per cent of over 188 offences under the DPS were speeding cases.

At that time, he also said that the highest points accrued in one offence was 18, which the DPS Guidebook states as either exceeding the speed limit by 50-60 km/h, dangerous driving or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The Brunei Times

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