Comptroller: Drivers with revoked licenses on roads

Transport Ministry, Traffic Police share blame for failing to keep banned drivers away from the wheel, says report.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
car crash 1 88 248 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
car crash 1 88 248
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
A large portion of drivers who have had their licenses revoked due to traffic offenses get back behind the wheel, and neither the Traffic Police nor the Transport Ministry have been able to stop them, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss said in his report released on Wednesday. "Research shows that 30 to 60 percent of drivers with revoked licenses continue to drive," the report noted. "By continuing to drive, the banned driver, who has already proven in the past that he does not care about traffic laws, continues to endanger the general public, including drivers and pedestrians alike," it added. "Many failures have been found in the activities of each of the bodies tasked with dealing with traffic offenders,.. The technique for tracking traffic offenders has been found to be inefficient and only partially implemented against the drivers with the highest number of traffic offenses," the report found. "Despite instructions by the transport minister... to implement a new technique [to track repeat offenders], the Transport Ministry has not done this," it added. The Comptroller's Report found problems with the way information on banned drivers was being shared between the Traffic Police and the Transport Ministry, and between courts and the police. The report called on police to send the Transport Ministry a full and updated list of drivers with offenses on their record, and for the Transport Ministry to track and monitor repeat offenders to prevent their return to the roads. Traffic Police have also been called upon to find better ways of sharing documents. "These failures make it difficult for the police to enforce the law against banned drivers... and enforcement and deterrence operations against traffic offenders are damaged as a result," the report said.