Five drivers cross violations limit, lose licences

Manama : The licences of as many as five drivers were suspended recently for crossing the annual traffic violations limit per driver, the General Directorate of Traffic informed yesterday.

Acting Deputy Director General of Traffic Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Ali Daraj said in a statement that “the driving licences of five drivers had been suspended for accumulating 20 traffic violation points each, which was the legal limit”.

Al Daraj clarified that the drivers had committed violations such as illegal drag racing, car stunts, jumping red signals and over speeding.

“The drivers were both Bahrainis and Asians. Some of them had repeated the same violations while others had licences, which were less than one year old. As per Article 4 of the Traffic Law, the licence of one of the drivers was suspended for six months instead of three as it had already been suspended once earlier,” the Lt. Col. stated.

Al Daraj advised road-users to follow traffic rules to avoid legal action and use the e-traffic services to find out the number of points accumulated by them. 

As reported earlier, the General Directorate of Traffic applied the new points last February. 

“The system is meant to determine the number of traffic violations committed by a driver. The number of points for each violation is in accordance with the danger such a violation poses,” the Directorate explained in a statement issued back then. 

“If the total number of points for any type of violation reaches 20 in a calendar year, the driver faces certain procedures that include permanent withdrawal of licence. In all cases the number of points would double if the violator has his/her driving licence issued within less than one year,” the statement added.